To A Better Place?
by Snowdrops In Summer
Summary: When the public and his so-called friends turn on him yet again after the final battle, Harry runs away to America with Sirius in the hope of a normal life. But what if Voldemort's ideas have lived on without him, and spread even to the remote town of Forks? Can Harry find love with one of the mysterious Cullens, or is he destined for more heartbreak? Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

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**"Harry Potter: The Next Dark Lord?"**

_It's only been 3 months since You-Know-Who was defeated, but is our hero turning into a villain before our very eyes? Despite the fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was the worst threat to the public since Grindelwald, the fact remains that Harry Potter has now killed many people. Could he be out for more blood?_

_"There's always been something dark about Harry. First of all he could speak to snakes, and then he had visions of people being killed." confided a classmate who wished to remain anonymous. As we know, Parseltongue has always been associated with dark wizards, and if we are to believe the rumours that Harry shared a mental connection with You-Know-Who, it is likely that his mind was further contaminated with darkness._

_Ron Weasley, a member of the famous Golden Trio had this to say; "I think that all the fame has gone to his head. He is so used to being the centre of attention that he won't want to just fade into the background. Now that he's killed You-Know-Who and loads of Death Eaters, I wouldn't be surprised if tries to follow in his footsteps, just to get more fame."_

Harry angrily screwed up the latest edition of the Daily Prophet and threw it across the dark hallway. The portrait of Mrs Black started screaming in indignation, but he ignored her and stormed up to his bedroom. Why did everyone always turn against him? He had always considered Ron his best friend, but that clearly wasn't the case if his comment in the article and the lack of letters was anything to go by. Sirius was the only person he had left who believed in him.

All he wanted was to get as far away from the wizarding world as he could, leaving behind all the hateful gossip and whispering. He longed to be somewhere that he wouldn't be constantly hounded by reporters, or members of the public who were angry at him for not saving their loved ones.

He took a deep breath to try to calm himself down, and headed off to the library to find Sirius.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warning: Just in case you haven't realised, this story will incude a SLASH pairing. (This won't happen until later in the story - I'm just giving you fair warning)**

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"How about America? I've always wanted to go there…" suggested Sirius, sinking into a dark velvet chair by the crackling fire. The library was the only room in 12 Grimmauld Place that he actually liked, which is why they were now using it to plan their new life in. Although Harry had been the one to suggest it, he'd been thinking along those lines himself for the past few weeks, as he found it hard to see his godson so unhappy.

Harry tilted his head to one side pensively. "Sounds good to me, have you got a particular place in mind?"

"Not really, but I think it should be somewhere small and out of the way, so no one can find us."

Harry wracked his brains for ideas, but came up with a blank, as he'd only heard of the famous big cities. From the look on Sirius' face, he wasn't faring much better. "Are there any maps or anything in this house?"

"KREACHER!" The wizened house elf appeared in front of Sirius and scowled. "Find a map of America". Immediately Kreacher bowed, and proceeded to search the rows of ancient dusty books, all the while complaining under his breath about his poor mistress and filthy half-bloods.

Sirius glared at the back of his head in disgust, and turned back to Harry. He desperately hoped that they would find somewhere they could completely disappear in. His godson had been through enough in his life, and he deserved to live peacefully and hopefully find some happiness for once. He'd long given up on his own chance of finding someone to love, but he was damned if he was going to let Harry stay alone and miserable too. With any luck, someone perfect would be waiting for him in America, and then he wouldn't have to worry about him so much.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Kreacher clearing his throat and holding out a map. He grabbed hold of it, and grudgingly nodded his thanks to the house elf, who then promptly dis-apparated.

While Sirius spread it out the large oak desk in front of them, Harry performed a spell which removed all the towns with populations of over 4000. They then started to scour it for potential locations, occasionally reading out likely looking names and jotting them down.

After a while, Sirius started to get bored, and decided to wind up Harry instead by picking out the rudest names on the map. "Big Beaver?" he questioned, smirking.

"No."

He started to snicker. "Horneytown?"

"Definitely not!"

"NEW ERECTION! Please Harry we HAVE to go there!" By this point Sirius was struggling to reign in his laugher.

"You can't be serious"

"I AM Sirius"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder who the adult is here." He had forgotten how childish his godfather could be sometimes. When he caught sight of Sirius' pout, he sighed. "How about we chose randomly?" As much as he wanted to find the perfect town themselves, he knew that wouldn't happen with the mood his godfather was in. There was no way that he was going to end up in a town with a dodgy name that the Daily Prophet could have a field day with if they ended up being found.

"How?"

Harry quickly conjured a dart and passed it to him. "Throw this at the map, and we'll go wherever it lands."

Sirius crossed his fingers and whispered "Please land on Big Erection, please land on Big Erection." Harry folded his arms and glowered at him, so he chucked it haphazardly at the map.

Harry leaned over to see where their new home would be. "Well, it looks like we're going to Forks."

"What kind of a name is THAT?" Sirius grumbled

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	3. Chapter 3

Sirius pointed his wand at the empty soup can and cleared his throat. "Portus". It glowed blue for several seconds, and then resumed its normal appearance. "Right, this will take us just inside the Olympic National Park, so we're under the cover of the forest, and then we'll walk to Forks from there." He adjusted the bag on his back to make sure it was secure, and then held out the portkey.

Harry double-checked his own bag, squeezed his eyes shut in preparation, and grabbed the other end of the portkey. He felt the familiar sickening feeling of being dragged forwards by his navel, and his head started to spin. They landed on a rocky patch of ground, and Sirius grabbed hold of him before he could topple over. "Thanks" he murmured, his cheeks turning faintly red with embarrassment.

Sirius gave a barking laugh. "Right, it's about 3 miles, so if we walk at a good pace, we'll get there in under an hour." He started to head off through the trees, gesturing for Harry to follow.

After taking a swig of water, Sirius passed the bottle to Harry. "I've come up with cover names for us, just in case." He pulled a sheet of parchment out of his pocket "Mine is Paddy, and yours is James. I've listed your surname as Black too, and told the American Ministry that you're my son."

"At least I can call you Padfoot without it sounding too strange."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, occasionally reaching out to steady each other when faced with particularly uneven ground. Harry reached up to wipe the sweat off his forehead, and felt his hand brush over his scar. He decided that he needed to change his appearance, as it wouldn't do for someone to recognise him. After considering different options for a few minutes, he turned to Sirius and asked "Can I show you my idea for a glamour?"

Sirius nodded and watched as his godson slowly moved his wand over his face, covering up his scar and changing his hair to a light brown. He grinned, and gave Harry the thumbs up in approval. "The girls will love it". Suddenly he pursed his lips. "How do you feel about losing the glasses?"

Harry shrugged; they only ever got in the way after all. He came to a standstill and pulled his glasses off, shoving them into his pocket. Gulping nervously, he waited as Sirius pointed his wand at each eye in turn, mumbling a complicated sounding spell. When it was over, he blinked rapidly, and was astonished to find that he could see things more clearly than he ever had before, even with his glasses. "Thanks!" His godfather ruffled his hair, and led them out of the forest.

They both took turns levitating each other over the Calawah River, although Harry ended up getting considerably wetter, thanks to Sirius getting distracted by an escaping chocolate frog.

In order to distract him from his complaining, Sirius told him "I've enrolled you at Fork's High School, so the locals don't get suspicious of a 17 year old sitting at home all day."

Harry groaned. He thought he'd finally escaped muggle school when he started Hogwarts, but now he was going back, and would be about 6 years behind everyone else.

"You start on Monday, so you've got the weekend to settle in."

"What are YOU gonna do?" demanded Harry. He was determined that he wasn't going to be the only one suffering and doing something awful every day.

Sirius raised his eyebrow in a scarily Snape-like manner and smirked when he saw his godson gulp. "I'm going to search for a job on Monday". It wasn't as if either of them needed the money with their combined fortunes, but it was important for keeping up appearances.

Eventualy, the lush greenery gave way to whitewashed buildings and grey roads. They had reached the boundary of Forks.

Sirius whooped and started to excitedly drag Harry down the street.

Once they reached the more widely populated areas, they gained several curious looks from the locals. Sirius noticed that Harry was becoming increasingly uneasy, and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. In return he got a weak smile.

They continued walking until they reached a short cul-de-sac with one lone house. Sirius put his hand on his godson's shoulder to stop him, and said proudly "Welcome to our new home". They stood in front of a large two-storey building, with large bay windows and a porch covered in roses. It looked much more welcoming that 12 Grimmauld Place, so they eagerly headed inside.

As soon as they got inside the entrance way and threw down their bags, Sirius started erecting wards around the house. They would stop anyone from the wizarding world being able to track their magic, repel anyone with bad intentions and prevent owls from finding them. Now that they were here, he didn't want to risk them being found. Although reporters were bad enough, the remaining death eaters who remained un-captured would no doubt love to track down his godson and get revenge for the death of their master.

While his godfather was occupied, Harry headed upstairs and entered the first bedroom that he came across. He threw himself down on to the bed, and stared up at the textured ceiling. As much as he was happy to be away from the wizarding world, he was incredibly nervous and worried about going into the muggle one.

He missed having friends terribly, but he wasn't sure if he could bear to make any new ones here. What if they turned on him too? He couldn't bear it if anyone else left him. At least he was going on his own and there was no Dudley to beat him up in the playground or threaten the other kids into staying away from him. That was something to be grateful for.

"Harry?" called Sirius' voice from downstairs. "Do you want to unpack?"

He pasted a smile on his face and headed downstairs to help his godfather.

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	4. Chapter 4

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

_**Flashback**_

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Despite Harry reassuring Sirius multiple times that he was perfectly capable of walking himself to school, he was currently standing by the gates with an anxious godfather in tow. He surveyed the odd jumble of buildings that made up the school, and instantly missed the grandeur of Hogwarts.

"Doesn't really compare does it?" commented Sirius mournfully.

Harry shrugged noncommittally. He squared his shoulders and turned to his guardian to say goodbye. To his surprise and embarrassment he was roughly gathered up into a bear hug. "Gerroff" he mumbled, pushing Sirius away. He looked around, and noticed that many of the pupils going through the gates were staring and whispering urgently. Still, he thought gratefully, at least they weren't malicious. Yet.

"Bye Padfoot, good luck with the job search" he said before he lost his nerve. Lifting his chin in a fashion that would have made Malfoy proud, he walked towards the reception.

Sirius watched him go, alternating between peering fretfully at his godson's back and glaring at the gossiping students. Once Harry was out of sight, he reluctantly headed off towards the town centre to begin a long day of job-hunting.

When Harry arrived at the reception, he started to introduce himself but was interrupted by Mrs Cope. "Don't worry dear, I know who you are. People have been talking about your arrival for days now!" She peered over the top of her glasses at the pile of paper on her desk. She then extracted one and handed it to him. "This is your timetable for the year. If you need any help, don't be afraid to ask me."

He thanked her, and turned away, casting his eyes down the sheet of paper.

_**Timetable for James Black: Senior year**_

_1__st__ English with Mr. Mason  
2__nd__ Government with Mr. Jefferson  
3__rd__ Trigonometry with Mr. Varner  
4__th__ French with Madame Fabre_

_Lunch_

_6__th__ Biology with Mr. Banner  
7__th__ Gym with Coach Clapp_

He looked worriedly at the lessons. English should be fine, and gym couldn't be harder work than quidditch training. When spying on Malfoy, thinking he was the Heir of Slytherin, he'd needed to learn some French so hopefully he wouldn't look completely stupid in that lesson. Unfortunately, he had no clue about the rest of the subjects. He'd definitely have to get a tutor if he didn't want to look like a complete imbecile.

Suddenly the bell rang to signal the start of the day, and Harry jumped, hurriedly rushing to English.

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The first few lessons whirled by in a confusion of blank faces and incomprehensible information. He battled with allomorphs and heteronyms in English and learned that the muggle American government system was nothing like the Ministry of Magic.

Trig was one thousand times harder than Potions, and even more boring that History of Magic. The only thing he could remember in any clarity was a girl called Jessica drooling over him in a revolting manner. However, since she was the only person all day to approach him, he accepted her invitation to sit with her at lunch. As much as he wanted to be by himself, he didn't need to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

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When he entered the dining hall, his nostrils were instantly assaulted by a smell that he assumed must be the food. He screwed up his nose in disgust, and found himself longing for the feasts that Hogwarts always provided.

Over the din of chatter and cutlery scrapping against plates, he heard the high pitched tones of the girl from Trig. "Jaaaames, over here!" He managed to pick her out in the crowd, and saw that she was frantically waving at him.

He sighed in resignation before making his way over to the girl. On the way, he got an uneasy feeling. He sensed around him for anything unusual, and was shocked to find a hum of magic coming from the opposite corner of the hall. Piercing green eyes shot in their direction, and as they settled over the group of 5 students in the corner, only one thought was running through his mind; they weren't human.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a pair of golden eyes turned and stared at him in horror. Harry panicked and desperately tried to erect an Occlumency barrier. Snape would undoubtedly ridicule him for his effort, but weak barriers were better than nothing. When he felt a faint prod at his mind, he knew that his suspicions had been correct. While attempting to tighten his barriers, he glared vehemently back at the creature.

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The rest of the Cullens looked expectantly at Edward. They knew from his sharp intake that he'd heard something worrying in someone's mind. They following his line of vision, and looked in confusion at the new student. All they knew about him was his name, which wasn't unusual, as they had no interest in the lives of petty humans.

With bated breath, they fixed their gaze on him and waited for him to speak.

Edward slowly turned to his family. "He knows."

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Harry's mind was going at a mile a minute. This was supposed to be a completely muggle area, so what were these _creatures _doing here? He desperately hoped they were non-magical, whatever they were. If they weren't his new life could be over before it had even begun.

Losing his appetite completely, he turned on the spot and headed out of the room, ignoring the confused looks that Jess was shooting at him.

As he reached the door, he felt a strong gaze focused on his retreating form. He knew without a doubt that if he turned around, he'd be looking into golden eyes.

Golden eyes… those words stirred some vague recognition in Harry. However, the harder he tried to recall the memory, the more it evaded him. Eventually he conceded defeat and headed outside to get some fresh air.

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Walking into biology, his heart plummeted as he realised that the only empty seat was next to one of _them_. Summoning his Gryffindor courage, he made his way to the desk. When he lowered himself into the seat, he noticed the creature shoot him a look of complete surprise, before it disappeared just as quickly.

Harry pointedly ignored the thing next to him, and pulled out a slightly crumpled notebook and a pen from his bag. He scribbled on the top corner of the first page and suppressed a sigh. After using a quill and parchment for so long, it would take him a little while to get used to a pen and paper again. At least he didn't have to worry about replenishing ink pots.

A clearing of a throat brought him out of his musing. "Hello, I'm Edward Cullen."

Harry turned, and scrutinised him. Deciding the creature meant him no harm at this current moment in time, he decided that politeness was the way forward. "James Black" he said, trying to copy Edward's crooked grin. To Harry's surprise, Edward stiffened.

"Any relation to Jacob Black?"

Harry raised his eyebrow at Edward's obvious discomfort and decided to ignore the fact that he seemed to be surreptitiously sniffing the air.

"He's a Native American, lives on the Quileute Reservation just outside Forks."

Harry shrugged. "Doesn't ring a bell."

An awkward silence fell, which was broken by the arrival of the teacher. Harry felt a wave of despair, as he realised that he didn't understand a single thing that Mr Banner was saying. Maybe the Dursleys were right after all. Maybe he was just a stupid freak. At least at Hogwarts he kept up, but here, in a _muggle_ school he knew absolutely nothing. Useless.

He was brought out of his reverie by the teacher loudly banging down a strange looking contraption on the desk in front of him. He eyed it in confusion, but instantly stopped when he heard a soft snickering coming from beside him. Whipping around, he glared forcefully into laughing golden eyes, which instantly turned apologetic.

"Sorry, sorry" he murmured. "Do you want to go first with the microscope, or should I?"

Not wanting to look like an idiot for not knowing what the retched thing did, Harry pushed the 'microscope' towards the other boy. He watched as Edward reached out to take it from him, and he jumped in shock when a freezing cold hand brushed against his own.

All of a sudden, he remembered.

_**In second year**_

_Lockhart ran his long fingers through his golden hair, preening as a faint sigh emanated from the females in the room. Swirly his cape dramatically, he began the lesson._

"_Vampires" he announced "are what we will be studying today"._

_At the shocked gasps in the class, his smile widened. "Please get out your copies of 'Voyages with Vampires', which incidentally is own of my own works, and turn to the first chapter 'Identification'!"_

_Along with his classmates, Harry obediently turned to the appropriate page. He skimmed through the listed features; beautiful pale skin, sharp teeth, red eyes. It was nothing he couldn't have guessed after reading Dracula in primary school, he thought. Then his eyes were drawn to a small sub-section at the bottom of the page._

_Vegetarian Vampires._

_So-called 'vegetarian vampires' gained their name from their unwillingness to feed from humans. Instead they feed only from animals, which changed the colour of their eyes from red to gold. Not an entirely accurate label for them if you ask me, but there you go. I was fortunate enough to meet one once, lovely fellow…_

_**Present time**_

In his panic, Harry felt his occlumency barriers crumble to nothing.

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'_VAMPIRE_'

Edward cringed as the thought loudly echoed in his head. The human knew exactly what they were. Before he could think clearly about what he was doing, he jumped up and ran from the room, leaving a trail of falling sheets of paper behind him.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! You've made my day :)**

**Just ****in case you were wondering, Bella doesn't exist in this story.**

**WARNING: Swearing**

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Mr Banner whipped around just in time to see his top student rushing from the room. He stared at the swinging classroom door with a look of confusion, and then turned to Harry with a questioning look.

He hurriedly blurted out an excuse. "He said he was going to throw up Sir. I doubt he'll be back." The teacher nodded, seeming satisfied with his answer, and walked off to check the answers of the other students.

Looking at the microscope, he sighed knowing that staying in the lesson without help would be pointless. He quickly gathered his things, suddenly feeling that he couldn't stay in the classroom one moment longer after such a realisation.

As he stood up, he called over to the teacher. "Sir I think it's catching."

Ignoring the response, he bolted.

While he jogged home, he considered his predicament. It wasn't that he had problems with vampires exactly; hell he'd befriended werewolves, veelas and house elves in the past. Harry was just incredibly shocked. He was so sure that he'd be far away from any sort of magical community or creatures, and yet here he was with a load of high school vampires.

_And_ not only were some of his classmates vampires, they _knew_ that he knew. No doubt Edward had run off to tell the rest of his coven, and he was sure that they would try to corner him as soon as possible, to demand how he knew their secret.

As he reached his street, he slowed down biting his lip in worry.

Sirius was going to have a fit.

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Edward rushed through the corridors, ignoring anyone who questioned why he was running through them when he was supposed to be in the middle of a lesson.

As soon as he was out of sight of any humans, he sprinted as fast as he could into the forest. As the density of the trees increased, and the light became dimmer, he relaxed enough to slow down and think.

He was such a wimp. He should have stuck around to see what the other boy did.

Would he have been scared?

Would he have screamed?

Or would he have backed away in disgust?

Well. He was a monster after all; it's not as if he would blame him. It wasn't just the Volturi that kept them from revealing what they were to the humans. They were terrified of rejection and revulsion, which Edward knew could easily lead to them being hunted down.

However, the most important thing running through his mind was how did he know? He must have felt his cold skin when their hands brushed, maybe noticed his unusual eyes, but how would he work it out just from that? They weren't _so_ different from humans, so they were used to being accepted as one of them. He was sure they were _good_ at acting human, so to be found out so quickly was actually quite disturbing.

Was James going to tell anyone? The fact that their life as they knew it was in the hands of one human was frankly terrifying.

He needed to tell Carlisle.

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Sirius sat in a plush armchair reading a muggle newspaper that he'd picked up during his job search. He hadn't had any luck, and he wasn't looking forward to the lecture he would no doubt receive from him godson if he didn't manage to get one soon.

He looked up as a red faced, wide eyed boy ran through the door.

"What's wrong Harry?" He rushed over to his godson, and started inspecting him for signs of damage. He _knew_ he should have insisted on picking him up from the school. _Anything_ could have happened to him. Suddenly he grabbed Harry's shoulders in panic as he remembered some of the horrible rumours he'd heard happened to new students in muggle schools. "They didn't flush your head down the toilet did they?" he asked aghast.

"No" groaned Harry, struggling out of his tight grip. Before moving here, he'd never pegged his godfather as the over-protective parent type. "Although I think you should probably sit down".

Sirius obeyed, and tried to project a calm exterior, when inside he was actually a jumble of nerves. When Harry remained silent, wringing his hands and studying the carpet, his insides gripped with fear.

"Please tell me what it is Harry." He begged. "I'm going spare over here!"

Harry took a deep breath. "Well, I saw a strange looking group of people in the cafeteria, and I could tell straight away that… that they weren't human." He mumbled the last part, and paused, waiting for the inevitable outburst.

"WHAT!?" Sirius exploded. "Not HUMAN!?"

Nodding helplessly, Harry screwed his eyes shut, trying to delay the inevitable.

"What are they?" his godfather prodded, in a gentler tone.

The younger boy gulped and braced himself. "Vampires."

"SHIT!" Sirius shot out his seat and began to frantically pace. He face had paled dramatically. "Are you sure?" he asked with little hope.

"I'm sure. I remembered all the signs from Lockhart's lesson."

The animagus scoffed. "Ha! That ponce? If you're basing your assumptions off something that dimwit taught you, then I don't think we need to worry."

"Siri. They're vampires."

Harry watched as his godfather slumped into a chair with his head in his hands.

All of a sudden, Harry remembered the most important piece of information. He hesitantly said, "If it helps, I'm pretty sure they're vegetarian."

Sirius looked up instantly, his eyes shining with mirth. He started to laugh. "Brilliant Prongslet! You always know how to cheer me up!" he gasped in between the laugher.

"I'm not joking Padfoot." Harry sighed. "They only drink the blood of animals, which makes their eyes golden."

Swallowing loudly, his heart sunk as he saw that his godson was completely serious. At least that was one small thing to be thankful for. However, vegetarian or not, he still didn't trust these vamps one inch. They were notoriously untrustworthy in the wizarding world.

"If you'd listened to my excellent suggestions of where to move to, then this wouldn't have happened!" the animagus whined.

"They were NOT excellent."

"You've got to admit, even Horneytown looks like a better choice right now." grumbled Sirius.

Harry resisted the temptation to argue. His godfather was relentless when in this kind of mood, and it was difficult to get much sense out of him.

He suddenly realised their biggest problem.

"We need to know what side of the war they are on!" he gasped. "I can't believe I didn't think of that before!"

Sirius scratched his head worriedly. "If I remember correctly, the head coven of the vampires, the Volturi has always been aligned with Voldemort." If these vampires were on the other side, they would have no choice but to find somewhere else to live. "I'm sure some of them will be rebel light supporters, but we really need to find out where their loyalties lie."

Harry pondered for a minute. "Do you think I should befriend them?" he suggested.

"YOU ARE NOT HANGING OUT WITH BLOODSUCKING PARASITES." Sirius thundered. He was not going to let his godson be put in danger ever again.

"They won't do anything to me; vegetarians remember!" Harry protested. "What if I promise to never be alone with them?"

"I said NO Harry."

"So werewolves and ex-convicts are okay, but VEGETARIAN vampires aren't?" Harry burst out. Couldn't Sirius see that he was just trying to help? When he saw the hurt look in his godfather's eye, all the fight went out of him. Remus' death was still a sore spot for both of them.

Sirius turned on his heel, and walked out the door.

* * *

The Cullen family were sitting around the huge mahogany table in the dining room. Carlisle and Esme sat patiently, waiting for one of their adoptive 'children' to break the silence, and bring forward the reason for the family meeting. Scanning their faces, Carlisle noticed that Emmett looked uncharacteristically serious, so he knew it must be important.

When no answer was put forward, Carlisle cleared his throat. "Well?"

"A human knows about us!" burst out Jasper.

Carlisle's eyes widened and Esme gasped, covering her mouth with a delicate hand.

"As soon as he spotted us, somehow he knew we weren't human. Then in Biology he worked out what we are." Edward added in explanation.

"Who?" questioned Carlisle. "The nurses at the hospital were talking about a Mr Black and his son who have just moved here. Is that him?"

Emmett nodded. "Yup!"

Frowning, Carlisle said "We need to find out how he knows." How could someone just guess? People who had known him for 10 years had never suspected anything, so how could a human teenager realise within a minute of seeing them? "He could very well ruin everything that we have worked for, if anyone else should find out."

Rosalie couldn't contain her anger any longer. "DIDN'T I TELL YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN? THESE FUCKING HUMANS RUIN EVERYTHING, AND IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO SIT AROUND…" she trailed off when she saw Esme's disapproving look.

A strained silence fell over the room, until Edward started and looked up sharply. "I don't know if he _is_ human. No one else has ever shut me out of their mind before." he mused.

"He _looked_ human enough." declared Rosalie haughtily, tossing her perfectly curled hair over her shoulder. As far as she could tell, he was just another plain, uninteresting human.

"He doesn't _smell_ human, or at least, not like one you'd want to eat. I'm not sure what it was, but I doubt even you would want to drain him Jasper." argued Edward.

"I couldn't see his future." Alice admitted in small voice. Not being able to see someone's future was both frustrating and troubling. She _hated_ being blind. How was she supposed to protect her family if she didn't know what was coming?

Carlisle looked rather alarmed at this news. Without Alice's gift they would be completely unprepared for any trouble. Especially if this human turned out to be not-so-human after all.

"Maybe you could try to make friends with him?" Esme suggested timidly. Maybe if they got close to this boy, he wouldn't see them as a threat and spill their secret.

"Somehow I doubt he'd be thrilled to befriend the local vampires." snorted Edward. He wasn't entirely sure what James' reaction to his discovery had been, which made him feel very nervous about facing him. However, he realised, it was entirely his own fault for running out before Harry's shock could merge into an opinion.

Carlisle looked at each of his children in turn, hoping that one of them would offer to talk to the newcomer. When none of them made any move to volunteer themselves, he sighed impatiently. "I think it should be you Edward."

To his son's horrified expression, he reasoned, "You are the only one he's spoken to so far, and you have a lesson with him, so it will be easiest for you to get the chance."

Emmett smacked Edward hard on the back. "Rather you than me bro!"

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	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to those of you who have reviewed! I love hearing what you think :)**

**WARNING: Swearing**

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When Harry walked into the cafeteria, he immediately checked that his Occlumency barriers were solidly in place. As casually as he could, he walked over to the food counter. After selecting a jacket potato (as it was the only thing that looked even remotely like it was supposed to) he looked around for a place to sit.

He was about to head to an empty table by himself, when he saw Jess waving in his direction. He turned around to check that she wasn't greeting someone else. "Over here silly!" she shouted at him. Clearly she was incredibly persistent; he wouldn't have tried again after being thoroughly ignored the day before.

Deciding not to screw up all chances of making any friends, he went to sit down next to Jess.

Thanks to her constantly sticking out her chest like a depraved peacock, Harry noticed with distain that her top was even lower cut than it had been the day before. Clearly, some muggles had no class whatsoever.

He looked up from his food when he heard Jess giggling. "Edward Cullen is staring at you."

Sure enough, Harry could feel eyes burning into the back of his head.

When Harry didn't reply she sighed impatiently and launched into what sounded like a well-practised speech. "They moved here a couple of years ago, they're all adopted by Mr Cullen and his wife. They're all stuck up and refuse to associate with any of us, because obviously we aren't good enough for them." She sniffed and stuck her nose in the air haughtily. Harry wondered when the Cullens had turned down Jess' lunch invitation. "It's really weird though, because they're all _together_, so it's kind of incesty and gross."

The more Harry heard some out of the girl's mouth, the more he began to dislike her, and regret sitting with her. Nevertheless, he needed information, so he latched onto the only comment that wasn't offensive about the family.

"It was nice of Mr and Mrs Cullen to take in a group of teenagers." he remarked.

"Hmm." Jess pursed her lips in disagreement. "I think Mrs Cullen can't have children though."

At that, what was left of Harry's patience deserted him. Despite the fact that they were vampires, he couldn't just sit back while she was rude about them. "What, so that makes her less of a good person because she can't have children of her own?" he challenged.

* * *

Hearing the name Cullen from across the hall, the vampires instantly turned their attention on the girl speaking. Noticing that James was the one she was talking to, they concentrated firmly on the conversation.

"Insesty!?" Emmett guffawed. He quickly quietened down after a murderous glare that his wife shot him.

When James remained silent, they exchanged worried looks, hoping he wasn't about to give anything away. A collective sigh of relief was heard as he politely complimented their adoptive parents.

Rosalie clenched her fist and made to get up from the table, after hearing the implied slander behind Jess' comment. Her husband's hand on her back calmed her enough for her to sit back down and listen.

Listening to James defend them, Edward saw his own shocked expression mirrored on the faces of his siblings.

They watched as Jess clearly tried to backpedal. "I didn't mean it like that James." she breathed in what was probably supposed to be an alluring manner. Edward snorted as the boy hastily threw off the hand she was attempting to rub his arm with.

A blonde haired boy on the other side of Jess chose that moment to chirpily pipe up, "Wouldn't you rather have no parents than be adopted?" As the boy laughed, the tension and anger at the Cullen table was palpable and thick in the air. Edward gritted his teeth. How _dare_ she? His anger turned to surprise, as his own thoughts were echoed by the angry tone of James.

"How dare you judge anyone on things you know nothing about?!" he demanded, staring at the boy who had dared to make the remark.

The Cullens noticed that they weren't they only ones watching by this point. The noise level had dropped noticeably, as students abandoned their own conversations, in favour of watching the argument unfold. Edward though it was understandable. After all, it wasn't every day that a new student entered into a shouting match in the middle of the canteen.

Clearly not knowing what was good for him, the idiot blonde opened his mouth yet again. "Oh, and you're the expert now, are you?" he asked affronted, giving James an odd look.

Edward couldn't help thinking the same thing, although he would never have voiced it if he'd been in that situation. He also couldn't help but wonder why the boy was defending them so strongly. The fact that James would stand up for a family of vampires gave him hope that he _didn't_ actually hate them. Maybe he wasn't disgusted by them after all…

Jasper saw the anger rising in James' face and sat back in his seat, eagerly anticipating the outburst he was fairly certain would follow shortly. It would serve the little shit right to get taken down a peg or two.

"My. Parents. Are. Dead." James ground out, spitting out each word like it pained him.

Ah. It was personal, Edward realised. He felt an odd surge of sympathy for the boy, as he watched him throw back his chair and storm from the room. Looking at his siblings, he was surprised to see that even Rosalie's expression was slightly softer than usual.

As soon as the boy left, dozens of whispered conversations broke the silence that had fallen.

Edward turned his thoughts to the coming hour and gulped. He'd been worried enough about facing a calm James, but now that the other boy was angry, he was positively dreading it.

As if reading his thoughts, Emmett chortled, "He's a feisty little human, isn't he?"

* * *

Having nowhere else to go, Harry arrived in biology early. When he sat down, his anger morphed into anxiety as he thought about the conversation he knew he couldn't avoid. His heart was thundering in his chest, as he became wracked with nerves. He desperately tried to lower his heart rate, knowing that the vampire would be able to hear it.

"Hi." a hesitant voice interrupted.

Harry looked up to see worried golden eyes, and answered in an equally hesitant tone, "Hello."

A strained silence fell, neither daring to look at the other.

Finally, Edward murmured, "We need to talk." As much as he wanted to get the conversation over and done with, he knew it needed to take place somewhere they wouldn't be interrupted or overheard.

"When and where?"

"You could come to my house?" the vampire offered tentatively.

"Please don't take offense, but I'd feel more comfortable in a slightly more public place."

Although it was masked quickly, Harry saw Edward's hurt expression before his face hurriedly smoothed out. He instantly felt guilty, but before he could apologise, Mr Banner came into the classroom and started the lesson.

Harry looked blankly at the exercise sheet in front of him, and tried to slyly peek at Edward's. Clearly he wasn't the master of subtlety, as Edward shot him a confused look and whispered, "Don't you understand?"

When he saw James lower his eyes to the table, he gasped in disbelief. "But this is one of the easiest things we'll do this year..." Edward trailed off when he saw the irritated look in the other boy's eye.

Sighing, Harry decided that if he was going to be biology partners with the vampire, he should come clean.

"I haven't had a science lesson since I was 10 years old." he confessed.

Edward looked at the other boy aghast. "What the hell have they put you in here for?!" he demanded. His mind was whirring at top speed, trying to work out what this could mean. Had he been ill? Had something awful happened to him? Or could it have something to do with the fact that he knew what they were?

Suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to be befriending the other boy. "I don't suppose you'd… want me to tutor you?" he questioned warily. James' emerald eyes shot up to meet his, full of astonishment. Edward held his breath, wondering if he'd pushed him too far.

"It wouldn't be too much trouble?" Seeing Edward frown, he had his answer. "Then I think I'd like that." he admitted quietly.

They settled into a more comfortable silence than the previous one, until the last few minutes of the lesson.

"Do you think the park would be a good alternative for meeting in?" Harry suggested while packing away his work into his bag.

"5 o'clock?"

Harry nodded.

* * *

With what felt like an army of butterflies in his stomach, Harry approached the bench that Edward was sitting on. "Right" he said, smiling weakly. "Shall we get this over with?"

Edward decided to get straight to the point: they both knew what they were there for. "You knew we weren't human." he stated.

It wasn't a question, but Harry knew he was expecting a response nonetheless. He tried to explain, saying "I just got this feeling about you: I knew something wasn't normal." Edward looked puzzled, and seemed to be about to ask a question, before Harry interrupted him. "You knew when I thought you weren't human. How could you know?" he demanded.

Edward's golden eyes stared into his. "I can read minds."

Harry gasped. "You're a legilimens?"

Edward blinked in confusion. "Err… it's a vampire gift." he said unsurely. Seeing the surprised look on the other boy's face, he elaborated, "Most of my family have one, and mine is being able to read other's minds." He watched as James processed the information, and once his face cleared, he posed another of his burning questions. "Why can't I read your mind anymore?"

Harry considered his answer carefully, and simply stated, "I've learned how to block my mind."

Assuming he wasn't going to get a more detailed answer, Edward lined up his next question, but quickly changed the wording as an elderly lady shuffled past with her walking frame. "How do you know what I am?"

Harry shrugged with attempted nonchalance. Following Edward's lead, he selected his words bearing in mind that the lady could hear them. "When you know what to look for, it's not too difficult to work out." he said vaguely.

Edward raised a perfect brow. "And how do you know 'what to look for'?"

"Let's just say, my education has been very different to yours."

Although he was still in the dark about many things, some things were starting to make sense to Edward. "Ah... so _that's_ why you didn't have a clue in biology!" he deduced triumphantly.

Harry nodded.

"You still haven't answered my question James."

"First, there is something you have to understand." Harry threatened, his tone abruptly much darker. "If I tell you, and my secret gets out, there will be a hoard of angry stake-wielding villagers outside your house."

Satisfied by the apprehensive look in the vampire's eye, Harry admitted defeat and prepared himself to spill his secret. He took a deep calming breath, and thought cautiously about his next words. He spoke slowly and quietly, weighing each word on his tongue. "Do you… know anything about the wizarding world?"

Edward's eyes widened in shock. At that moment, he was eternally grateful for Carlisle's seemingly limitless knowledge and willingness to share aforementioned knowledge with his family. Finally he understood.

"You're a wizard." he said dumbly.

That certainly explained a lot, but what would a wizard be doing moving to Forks when there was a war raging? He must be escaping it for some reason, but _why_? Maybe he was a Voldemort supporter, who was overcome with grief after the death of his master. Or maybe he was someone from the light, trying to escape from the remaining death eaters. Either way, he knew there was no way he could just come out and ask him; if they were on different sides that would change everything.

Noting the lack of disbelief or denial in Edward's expression, Harry smiled wryly. "Not going to ask me to pull a rabbit out of a hat to prove it?"

Edward snorted. "Just because vampires can't perform magic, it doesn't mean we are ignorant to its existence."

A brief silence followed, both of them floundering for something to say.

Looking at his watch, Harry started when he realised what the time was. "Listen, I'd better get back, otherwise Sir-Paddy will be getting worried about me."

"Sure! Sorry I didn't mean to keep you." the vampire apologised.

Just as Edward turned to leave, Harry called his name. "Does the offer of tutoring still stand?" he asked nervously.

The vampire shot him a crooked grin. "Of course James!" He waved, and then headed off into the forest on the edge of the park.

* * *

"Hey Siri!" Harry called as he closed the front door behind him.

"I'm in the kitchen" Sirius called. "Where have you been? I was starting to get a bit worried."

"I'm sorry Padfoot, I didn't realise it was so late." Harry replied. He stopped in the doorway and burst out laughing at the sight of his godfather attempting to extract smoking spaghetti from the toaster. "What the hell are you doing?" he gasped in between his laugher.

Sirius glared at him. "This is what you used to make the toast with this morning, is it not?"

"Yes, but you don't use it for anything else!"

Harry hurriedly rushed over and grabbed the knife that the animagus was about to stick in the toaster. He was beginning to wish they had brought Kreacher along after all; Sirius was a danger surrounded my muggle technology. At the weekend he would have to go through the kitchen utensils with him, to hopefully avoid any future mishaps.

Sitting dejectedly at the kitchen table, Sirius asked, "Why were you so late that I ended up having to attempt making a meal by myself?"

"I was just talking with Edward." Harry explained, as he filled up a pan with water and placed in on the stove.

Sirius sat up a bit straighter in his chair. "The vamp?" he quizzed. "Did you find out what side they're on?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but I told him what we are."

"You did WHAT!?" the animagus hollered. "You said you were going to _befriend_ them, not have a heart-to-heart and share your secrets like a bunch of Hufflepuffs!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "They knew something was wrong. What muggle would realise they were vampire in just a few hours?"

Although he still wasn't happy, Sirius grumbled out an unintelligible agreement.

Thinking it was wise to leave out the fact that Edward was going to be tutoring him, Harry tried his best to placate his godfather. "At least this way, he should trust me more, and hopefully we can find out which side they're on."

"I hope so."

Having decanted the last of the mangled spaghetti from the toaster, he added some fresh pasta to the pan on the stove. He suddenly remembered what Edward had admitted to him. "I also found something else out. Most of his family have… gifts."

"What sort of gifts?" asked Siruis suspiciously.

He decided it was best to be blunt. "Edward can read minds." At the shocked look on his godfather's face, he quickly interjected, "If you put up Occlumency barriers he can't get in."

The older man looked relieved, and launched into telling his godson all about his day spent looking for a job.

* * *

As soon as he got in through the door, Edward rushed to Carlisle's study, ignoring the indignant thoughts of his adopted siblings as he walked straight past them.

He knocked once on the door, and entered when he heard his father's voice on the other side.

He took a seat in the sturdy wooden chair opposite the desk, and waited patiently for Carlisle to finish writing the sentence he was working on.

Putting his pen down, Carlisle asked expectantly, "I trust this means you've talked to the boy?"

Edward nodded. "Yes, and I managed to find out how he knows about us."

"And?" he asked, clearly holding his breath.

"He's a wizard."

Edward was confused by the look that crossed over the older vampire's face. When he tried to read the older vampire's mind, he was met by a song that Carlisle used to listen to on his record played. Why was he blocking his thoughts? Bewildered, he waited for the other man to speak.

"Do you know if he's on our side?" his adopted father said thoughtfully.

"Not yet, but I've offered to tutor him, so hopefully he'll let his guard down enough that we can find out."

Carlisle beamed. "Excellent." He picked up the pile of papers on his desk, and shuffled them absently. "Let me know anything you find out." He then clearly dismissed his son by turning to the large pile of paperwork in front of him.

Respecting the fact that Carlisle probably had a huge pile of work to get through, Edward headed for the door. Once he was out on the landing, he started to head to his room. All of a sudden, he heard his adoptive father's thoughts coming from inside the study and froze on the spot.


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you again for your reviews! I love hearing about your reactions to the story :)**

* * *

When the sun started to peep up over the horizon, Edward was still perched at the top of a tree in the middle of the forest. His golden eyes stared unseeing, as his mind went over what he had heard the day before.

Up until then, Edward had always thought they were on the right side of the war.

Voldemort had promised them what the so-called 'light side' was reluctant to do: give rights to magical creatures. He had wanted to rid the world of potential threats such as muggles finding out about the wizarding world. Although Edward didn't agree with _all_ of his ideas on muggles and muggleborns, he could still see where he was coming from. He'd heard of several cases where whole villages of muggles had been obliviated thanks to the parents of muggleborns excitedly telling all of their neighbours about the wizarding world. His family worried about exposure on a daily basis too.

However, now he thought about it, he hadn't exactly been sad, or even _angry_, when the famous Harry Potter had killed their leader. If fact, he'd secretly been hoping to finally have some peace. In a way, he was almost _grateful_ to the boy.

However, the remaining death eaters wanted revenge, and revenge they would have. Naturally the vampires, along with all their other allies had been drawn into it too.

After hearing the barbaric thoughts in the head of his own father, he thought that maybe he had been wrong. The older vampire had been thinking about a raid he was planning at a wizarding settlement in Seattle compromising mostly of muggleborns. Although, 'raid' was probably to neutral a word; the images in Carlisle's mind had been more along the lines of bloodshed and ruthless slaughter.

Carlisle had always seemed so compassionate and loving, especially with his job as a doctor, but now Edward could see the cold reality: he was bloodthirsty and sadistic.

How had he not seen it? He felt so stupid. He'd had access to the older vampire's mind for decades, but he'd never seen anything that indicated how cruel he could be.

Knowing what he knew now, there was no way that he could continue to follow his adopted father like a loyal sheep. Maybe James would be on the other side? There was no way he could do this alone.

* * *

Sirius woke up to the smell of frying bacon, and eagerly bounded downstairs.

When he reached the kitchen, he threw himself onto a chair and announced, "I'm going on another job hunt today, so I think I'm gonna need LOTS of bacon!" He just hoped he would actually find something today, as he'd had no luck whatsoever so far.

Harry chuckled. "Good! I hate being the only one suffering during the day."

Sirius pouted.

"Cheer up Padfoot." Harry said, pushing a plate of bacon in front of him. "We can both moan in the evenings over how rubbish our days have been."

The animagus hummed his approval. He licked his lips and stared at the plate longingly, wishing his godson would hurry up so they could start eating.

When Harry sat down with his own plate of bacon, they tucked in, settling into a comfortable silence.

Pushing his empty plate to one side, Harry turned to his godfather. "I should warn you, I'll be home late tonight. I've got a tutoring session."

The animagus wrinkled his nose. "_Tutoring_?"

"Yeah." Harry sighed. "I can't believe we forgot that I was so behind in muggle schooling."

Sirius smacked his palm against his forehead. "Urg I'm such an idiot! How could we not think of that?"

"It's alright, I'll just have to put in some extra work. Besides, it's not as if I desperately need good grades anyway." he said, attempting to reassure the older wizard.

Laughing, Sirius agreed, "Yeah bank of mummy and daddy has set you up well."

Harry glowered at his godfather and headed upstairs to get ready for school, calling over his shoulder, "Your turn to wash up!"

* * *

At the beginning of biology Edward did his best to get James up to speed with the current topic. Despite his rushed explanation, the other boy seemed to understand, and looked more confident about the lesson ahead.

Once Mr Banner set their work, the class started up hushed conversations. Remembering that he hadn't seen James at lunch, Edward questioned him about it.

"Well, I couldn't exactly sit with Jess after the mess at lunch yesterday." Harry grinned despite himself.

The vampire laughed. "True." he agreed.

Harry turned his attention to the diagram in front on him, and attempted to fill in some more of the labels. When he'd done as many as he could, he pushed it across the table towards Edward, biting his lip nervously.

Edward was pleasantly surprised, as he had only needed to correct one of the labels. "You're a fast learner." he said to James approvingly.

Harry flushed. He was still unused to praise, especially after all those years of Snape being rude about even his best potions.

Noticing that James was becoming uncomfortable, he turned the conversation back to lunch. "You know." Edward started casually. "You could always sit with me in the cafeteria." Then he winked, and said "I don't bite."

Fighting the snort that threatened to burst out, Harry admitted, "I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable around your family." Suddenly he realised that it could be taken the wrong way and added, "It's nothing against them: I'm just wary of people I don't know."

Edward didn't mind: he himself now felt uncomfortable around his family. He was just eternally grateful that _he_ was the one with the mind-reading ability, as he knew he'd find it hard to mask the disgust that now filled his thoughts.

He was startled by a prod on his arm. He turned to James startled, until he realised that he'd zoned out, and not given him a response.

"Sorry" he apologised sheepishly. "I understand. I think I could tear myself away from them to keep you company over lunch."

Harry felt oddly flattered that Edward would be willing to ditch his family for him. He replied, "Well that would be nice, so long as I don't offend your family. I could do with someone friendly to sit with. As you know, I'm not exactly fighting off hoards of people who are waiting to befriend me."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his smile slipped off his face. He was sure that the sting of the betrayal of his friends would never truly leave. Ron and Hermione had felt like siblings to him and it hurt so much to know that they didn't feel the same. So many people at Hogwarts had been desperate to make friends with him, but having everyone leave him alone here wasn't the welcome break he'd anticipated.

Edward looked at the boy's sad expression quizzically, but decided that it was best not to question him. Deciding to change the subject he offered, "Would you like to start the tutoring this afternoon? I could meet you in the library after last lesson?"

Pulling himself out of his depressing thoughts, Harry dredged up a smile, and agreed.

To take James' thoughts off whatever unpleasant tangent they were going in, Edward decided to explain the current topic in more depth.

Thanks to the fact that understanding the information took a lot of his concentration, Harry's thoughts were successfully diverted.

By the time the lesson drew to an end, Harry was feeling much more confident about passing biology. He was incredibly grateful to the vampire for helping him out, as he was shaping up to be a very good tutor.

* * *

Esme looked up as the door of her cake shop tinkled softly. A man with wavy hair and a roguish smile stepped over in the doorway, and ambled his way over to the counter.

"How can I help you sir?" she asked pleasantly.

"I don't suppose you have any jobs going do you?" Before she could answer, Sirius continued desperately, "My godson will probably kill me if I haven't found one by the time he gets home from school."

Esme smiled, and began to laugh when he winked at her and added, "And you wouldn't want to be responsible for my death now, would you?"

Another tinkle of the door announced the last remaining customer leaving. After glancing at the clock and seeing that it was almost 5 o'clock, she gestured towards a table. When the man took a seat, she locked the door and changed flipped over the sign so that it said 'CLOSED'.

She grabbed a slice of victoria sponge cake, and sat down, placing a plate in front of her potential employee. "Do you have a CV?"

He handed her a slightly crumpled sheet of paper, and looked hopeful as she scanned her eyes over it. This was the furthest he'd got out of the places he'd visited, but he didn't want to get his hopes up too much.

For something to do, he picked up the slice of cake and took a bite. He closed his eyes in pleasure. He could _definitely_ enjoy working here if he got free cake.

When she read his name, there was a flicker of recognition. "Paddy Black? I believe your godson knows my adoptive son Edward. I'm Esme Cullen."

Sirius fought to keep his expression neutral at the knowledge that she was one of the vamps. How had he not realised!? Some ex-auror he was. However, he thought mischievously, that certainly explained why she was so damned good looking!

Seeing a slight flicker in the man's eyes, her smile faltered slightly. All of a sudden, understanding dawned on her. "I take it you know about us?" she asked softly. When he nodded, she assured him, "If my… condition doesn't bother you, it wouldn't bother me to have a wizard working for me."

Sirius' ears pricked up. "Does that mean you're willing to give me a job?" he asked eagerly.

Making her way over to the counter, she cast an eye over the staff rota. "I'm sure we can find you some hours, one of my staff just got married and moved away."

"Excellent!" he beamed. "Although, I think I'll need to a bit of help with muggle technology. You don't even want to know what a mess I made of our toaster the other day."

Esme giggled, and was surprised to realise that she was actually looking forward to working alongside this man.

Sirius was starting to think that maybe he'd overreacted when Harry told him about the Cullens. Esme was so friendly, and if the rest of her family were the same, they clearly had little to worry about. How bad could someone who worked in a cake shop be? It was hardly the sort of thing a death eater would do. His lips quirked as he thought of his _dear_ cousin Bellatrix in a frilly apron behind the counter.

Thinking for a minute, Esme said, "You'll only need to learn about the till and the coffee machine, but I suppose they could be a bit challenging for you."

Sirius knew a bit about coffee machines, thanks to his godson's daily fix, but he was at a loss with the other bit of technology. "A… till?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh dear!" Esme laughed, "I can see I've got my work cut out with you."

Winking, the animagus responded suggestively, "Oh, I'm definitely a handful!"

Had there still been blood running through her veins, Esme would have blushed. It had been decades since someone had flirted with her, so it was unusually enjoyable to have the attention.

"How about you come back at 9 tomorrow morning? It shouldn't be too busy, so we'll have spare time to teach you the ropes."

Despite being bemused by the muggle expression he hurriedly agreed.

On his way out of the door, he bowed dramatically and declared, "Until tomorrow, my fair maiden!" Seeing her suppress a laugh, he was pleased to note that he definitely still had his charm.

* * *

Harry picked a table in a secluded corner of the library and pulled out his books. He was nervous, but also oddly looking forward to his first tutoring session with Edward. Despite the fact that he was a vampire, and potentially an enemy, Harry had started to enjoy his company. As strange as it was, he was the closest thing that he had to a friend.

Edward caught sight of James, and hurriedly made his way over.

"Hey, I thought we could start with trig today, as I'll be with you in bio to help you along anyway."

Harry groaned. He had always hated maths, even at primary school when long division was the hardest thing he'd be faced with. However, he realised that it was a necessary evil, so he opened his maths textbook.

Edward started off with the basics, explaining 'sin', 'cos' and 'tan' as thoroughly as possible. When he thought that James understood sufficiently, he decided to make some diagrams to test him on.

When he leaned over to grab a sheet of paper, he noticed a bruise on the side of the other boy's face. "What happened there?" he asked, pointing at the oddly coloured skin.

Harry lowered his eyes and blushed. "The blonde boy that I got into an argument with decided to throw a basketball at me in gym."

Edward laughed. "Oh! Who would have thought that innocent little Mike could be so violent?" The mental image of Mike pelting James with flying balls was just too funny.

Glowering at the vampire, Harry pointedly turned back to the textbook.

Suppressing his laughter so as not to upset James, Edward quickly sketched a diagram and pushed it along the table to him.

Using the time it took the wizard to finish the task, he drew up some more slightly challenging ones.

At the end of the hour, Edward was astounded by how well the other boy was doing. It was nice to see instant results, which was something he'd rarely seen in people he'd been forced to help in the past. If James learned everything this fast, he would definitely be an absolute pleasure to tutor. "Same time tomorrow?"

* * *

Carlisle had called a family meeting, so the Cullens sat dutifully around the large dining table.

"The Carrows have sent word of our next mission" the oldest vampire said gravely.

Emmett cheered and punched the air in excitement. "About time!" he exclaimed. "What are we doing this time?"

"The wizarding in Seattle is predominantly made up of muggleborns, and our orders are total annihilation."

Cracking her knuckles, Rosalie smiled sadistically. "It's time we got to show some useless humans their place."

"Not that I dislike the idea, but why do this in particular?" Jasper queried.

Carlisle thought carefully about his answer, before saying, "Most of the war is concentrated in Great Britain, but an attack here will show the Order of the Phoenix that we still mean business."

Esme cleared her throat timidly and said anxiously, "Carlisle, you wouldn't mind if I sat this one out would you? You know I'm not fond of violence."

Rubbing her arm in a soothing manner, he assured her that it wouldn't be a problem.

"I've got some other news." Esme started nervously. "The elder wizard is going to start working at the cake shop."

At her husband's raised eyebrow, she hastened to give an explanation. "He was in need of a job, and I thought I could keep an eye on him, and try to gain information."

She hoped that would be enough to bring Carlisle around to the idea. Obviously there had been no ulterior motives when she met Paddy; she had just thought he seemed like a lovely person. She had also thought it would also be nice to be able to act herself around him, and not need to cover up her vampirism.

As Edward caught Esme's thoughts he starred resolutely at the table. Maybe he could find an ally in her, as she never seemed completely comfortable with their missions. It was vital that his family believed he was loyal to the cause, but he like Esme he couldn't go through with this. They'd been given less than pleasant tasks in the past, but he had never had to murder anyone before.

Seeing that his adoptive father still looked unconvinced, he had a brainwave. "Esme, you could make sure that he's doing a shift when the rest of us go to Seattle! That way we should be less under suspicion."

Carlisle looked impressed. "Good thinking Edward."

Esme smiled at Edward gratefully, and upon seeing his pleading look she suggested, "Maybe one more of us should stay here? One of the boys perhaps, so it looks less suspicious than everyone but me leaves?"

"Who do you suggest?" questioned Carlisle, eyeing her oddly.

Edward thought quickly. It was now or never, but he had to make this sound good. "I would be willing to step down from this mission. Like Esme, I dislike the thought of killing others. This way I can ensure that no one will suspect our family, so we will be safe to continue living here."

Although he was still mistrustful of his eldest son's reasoning, Carlisle nodded and then turned his attention to the day of the attack.

When Jasper and Emmett started to suggest possible battle plans, Edward zoned out, trying to think of a way to talk to Esme in secret.

A hushed silence caught his attention, and he looked around to see that Alice's eyes had glassed over. After a few moments, he watched as a huge grin spread across her pixie features. "It will all go perfectly!"

Carlisle looked at her in confusion. "I thought you couldn't see wizards' futures?"

"I couldn't see _James_'." she corrected. "Although, I have to admit that at first I assumed it would be the same for all of them, so I don't understand why he seems to be the exception to my gift."

Thinking back on what James had told him yesterday. He said thoughtfully, "When we talked about my gift, he said that he can somehow 'block' his mind. Maybe that stops your gift too?"

Nodding, Carlisle agreed. "That does sound like the most likely explanation." Looking at the rest of his family, he said, "I think we will just need to be extra cautious where he is concerned." Once he had their verbal agreement, he turned back to his eldest son, and asked, "Talking of James, how are things coming along with him? Have you made any more progress?"

"We had our first tutoring session today, although he didn't tell me anything of importance." Seeing the annoyed look on the older vampire's face, Edward continued hastily, "However, he's agreed to have lunch with me in the future, so that should give me an opportunity to become friendlier with him."

Carlisle sat back in his chair looking satisfied. It seemed he'd managed to do something right after all.

Then Rosalie sneered. "I refuse to sit with _him_."

Stifling a sigh, Edward replied, "You won't have to, I will be eating with him alone at a separate table."

"Good riddance!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Again, thank you for the reviews! I always like to hear what you think, even if it's constructive criticism.**

**Warning: swearing**

* * *

At five minutes to nine, Sirius was standing nervously outside Esme's cake shop. What if he was completely useless? Maybe Esme wouldn't be so accommodating once she realised how rubbish he was with all things muggle. He tried to summon up the Gryffindor courage that he prided himself on, but right now it was failing him.

He jumped, as Esme knocked on the window and beckoned him inside. Throwing a confident mask on his face, he went inside.

"Paddy!" Esme exclaimed. "We don't have time for you to dawdle if you're going to be able to serve people when we open in an hour."

Sirius gulped. He hadn't realised that he'd be serving people on his first day.

Seeing his nerves, Esme smiled kindly and gestured for him to follow her. "Luckily this job isn't too complicated; you just need to be able to work the till."

Ah. The dreaded till. Assuming it was the huge grey thing sitting on the counter, he looked at it apprehensively.

"First ask if they want to eat in or out. If they want to eat in, press the button with the picture of a table and chairs. If they're taking it out then don't bother."

Peering at the machine, he saw the correct button, and nodded at Esme to continue. Thank god it didn't seem too complex so far.

"Then just press whatever cakes they want, and at the end, press the button that says 'total'."

Sirius looked at each button on the till, making sure he was familiar with all of the treats. Thanks to Harry's sweet tooth, he was reasonably well educated. He worked his way through devil's food cake, strawberry cupcakes, carrot cake and chocolate muffins, until he had to squint at one label with very small writing. "What the hell is a 'preens-reg-enton-tort'!?" he asked, baffled.

Esme laughed at his awful pronunciation. "It's 'prinzregententorte'. It's made up of lots of layers of thin sponge with chocolate buttercream in-between, and then covered in chocolate."

Sirius failed to understand why such a simple sounding cake needed such a pretentious name, but he didn't want to offend his new boss. Instead of the scathing comment longing to burst out, he said "It sounds delicious."

Smiling widely, Esme asked, "Shall we practise?" When Paddy agreed, she walked over to the door. Once he was standing in position behind the counter, she walked up to him.

"Hello sweetheart." He winked. "Do you want to eat in or out?"

The vampire cocked her head to the side as if debating. "Hmm, I think I'll eat in today." She watched as Paddy pressed the appropriate button on the till.

"And what can I get for such a beautiful lady?"

Stifling a giggle, Esme asked, "Can I please have a tarte au citron, and a slice of pineapple upside down cake?"

"Coming right up!" Surveying the buttons, he instantly found the tart, but had to search for a minute before finding the upside down cake.

Esme waited patiently, and then handed over the money that he asked for.

Sifting through the coins in his hand, Sirius started to panic. He knew absolutely nothing about American muggle currency.

Realising his dilemma, Esme quickly stepped in to explain the conversion rates from galleons.

Deciding it was a lost cause, the animagus just decided to attempt to memorise how much each coin was worth. "Was I okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Well apart from the money issue, I think you'll be fine at serving people." she assured him. "And I wouldn't flirt with the elderly ladies if I were you. I don't want any of them fainting with excitement."

Sirius laughed, but his palms started sweating when the bell on the door tinkled and their first customer walked in. Realising he was supposed to serve them when Esme went into the back room, he took a deep breath and greeted him.

* * *

Madame Fabre stood at the front of the classroom, waiting for her pupils to stop speaking.

"Aujourd'hui, nous regarderons un film pour rassembler ce que nous avons appris, au sujet de la criminalité et le châtiment." [Today, we will watch a film to bring together what we have learned about crime and punishment.]

Harry was pretty sure that meant they would be watching a film about crime. Judging by the whoops from the more enthusiastic students, he had understood correctly.

He hadn't watched a film since primary school, so he was quite excited at the prospect. However, he hadn't considered that the film could be quite so dull. 'Les 400 Coups' turned out to be a film in which the whole hour and a half consisted of a boy not doing much other than getting into trouble, stealing a typewriter and running away from a juvenile detention centre.

Unimpressed after the first 20 minutes, and confused by the temperamental subtitles which decided to disappear every 10 minutes or so, Harry's mind turned to the coming lunch hour.

Would Edward remember his offer to sit with him? Did he actually _want_ to sit with him? Despite his vampire status and potentially dubious allegiances, Harry couldn't help but want to become friends with him. Edward wasn't talking to him because of his scar or his name. Neither was he excited about the gossip mill of a small town. Regardless of the shaky start of their… acquaintance, he really didn't want to lose the only person he had to talk to other than his godfather.

As soon as the odd tinkling music announced the end of the film, Harry threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and headed to meet Edward. On his way down the corridor, he was glared at by Mike, who was clearly still nursing a vendetta against him. Gym was going to be bloody fun.

He entered the wall of noise that was Forks High School cafeteria, and headed for the food queue. Once he'd grabbed a BLT and a couple of cookies, he looked around for Edward.

Edward spied James looking around for him, and once they locked eyes, he sent him a crooked grin. He could see the nervousness of the other boy, and actually found it quite endearing.

"Hey Edward." he said, attempting to flatten his unruly hair.

"Hello."

Seeing the vampire fiddling with an apple, Harry asked, "Surely you're not going to eat that?"

"No, it's just for show. Can't have the humans getting suspicious can we?" he winked.

Now he was curious. "What happens if you eat it?"

Edward forced his face into a blank expression. "I die." At the horrified look on James' face he burst out laughing. "Sorry sorry! Only kidding; it just tastes like crap."

Harry rolled his eyes. However, he kept thinking about how Edward's face had come alive when he laughed. He would have to make that happen more often.

He started tucking into him sandwich, when suddenly he became aware of being stared at. Turning around, he saw several pairs of golden eyes staring at him. "I take it your family aren't too pleased about you sitting here with me." he mumbled. The last thing he wanted to do was get in between the coven and cause problems.

Edward waved his hand dismissively. He was well aware that his family were listening to every word they spoke, so he wanted to be careful about what he said. Letting his gaze drift towards his usual table, he saw Rosalie sneering in their direction and grasped at the perfect opportunity to wind her up.

"Actually, I think they're just jealous that they aren't sitting with you. Rosalie especially." At her fierce glare, he smiled brightly.

Harry snorted. "I'm assuming our conversation is their lunchtime entertainment?"

Seeing the vampire's lips twitch, he knew he had his answer. "At least I'm not shouting at you, and announcing my orphan status to the entire school." he pointed out.

Edward snorted. "True." He wondered what had happened to James' parents. He knew it was rude to ask things like that, especially when you didn't really know someone that well. However, he told himself, if he didn't know he could easily put his food in it and upset the other boy.

Taking a deep breath, he asked tentatively, "James, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents?"

Harry felt a small twinge of sadness. "They were murdered when I was one." Then he froze, hoping that he hadn't given too much away.

Seeing James' discomfort, Edward quickly steered the conversation onto safer ground, asking, "Are you up for tutoring again today?"

"Sure." Harry grinned, relieved at the change of subject. "My godfather will be at work anyway. He's got a job in a cake shop." Hopefully Sirius would bring some cakes home for him.

"I know. I think Esme will be glad to have someone who knows her secret working with her. She hates having to hide."

Harry was completely lost. "Huh?"

"My adoptive mother" Edward clarified.

"WHAT?!" he exclaimed. After everything Sirius had said about him going to school with vampires, he was now working with one? As much as he loved his godfather, he could be such a hypocrite sometimes.

Edward couldn't help but feel offended. Did James not trust his vampire family to be around his godfather? He could understand if he was alone with _Rosalie_; that would be fair enough, but his sweet caring adoptive mother?

"If it bothers you that much, I can ask Esme to let him go." he said flatly.

Seeing the hurt in the vampire's eyes, Harry hurried to explain. "No! I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry." He tried to reign in his anger, knowing it wouldn't help the situation. "It's just that he hit the roof when he found out I was going to high school with you. It just seems a bit hypocritical that he would then take a job with one of you."

Edward looked slightly mollified, so Harry started to eat his lunch, effectively ending the conversation. Just as he'd polished off his food, the bell rang, so they made their way to biology.

* * *

Amycus Carrow sighed and resigned himself to another meeting with the Cullen patriarch. Despite their similar goals, he hated working with magical creatures. He wasn't _scared_ of them of course: just wary. Still, at least they were veggie vamps, so he should be reasonably safe.

Carlisle straightened in his chair as a squat, hunched man burst into the room surrounded by emerald flames. Hopefully Amycus would be bringing details of the mission. "How can I help you Mister Carrow?"

The wizard blinked, attempting to remove the floo powder in his tiny eyes. Once he could see clearly, his pudgy face contorted into a haughty look. He hated that the creature had seen him in a weakened state. He drew himself up to his full height and ordered, "You are to attack this Sunday. This is because the families will probably mostly be at home, _enjoying_ their time together." Amycus sneered. The muggleborns had no right to enjoy themselves, while _proper_ wizards were suffering because of them.

"Of course. We have already decided on our plan."

Amycus grudgingly admitted to himself that the vampire was well organised. "Feel free to torture them as much as you want, but I want them all dead."

Carlisle hurried to assure him. "Alice has seen that it will go according to plan."

Intrigued in spite of himself, Amycus asked, "The seer?"

Reigning in his annoyance, he supressed a sigh: first the Volturi, and now the death eaters. Alice seemed to be highly in demand, but he was damned if he was going to give up one of his children to be used for someone else's gain. Despite his ruthlessness need for revenge, he did genuinely care about his family, and would stop at nothing to protect them from the likes of the Carrows.

At Carlisle's affirmative nod he asked, "Does she see us coming out on top?"

"Her gift is limited to the impact of people's decisions. Unless you made a choice that would ensure that, she wouldn't see it."

Sighing, Amycus once again wished the barmy Trelawney was still alive. She'd delivered the Potter prophecy, and would be better than a selective seer.

"I will be checking in on Monday." He told the vampire.

Carlisle bowed his head in acquiescence. As much as he hated being ordered around by the remaining death eaters, it was the only way to ensure that vampires were treated as they deserved.

As Amycus walked away, he turned to look over his shoulder. "Oh, and Cullen?" he asked in a sickly sweet tone. "Don't mess it up."

He tossed some floo powder into the fireplace, and stepped in with what Carlisle supposed was supposed to be a threatening laugh, but it came out as more of a wheezy giggle.

* * *

Edward hurried towards James in the library and sat down next to him. Looking the other boy up and down, he asked, "So I take it you didn't get attacked by the lovely Mike in gym today?"

"That's right." Harry replied breezily, choosing to cover up the fact that his back was rather sore due to an incident involving a basketball. He didn't want to look like some weakling who couldn't take care of himself in front of Edward.

Edward pulled his bag off the floor, and started to riffle through it. "What do you want to work on today?"

Thinking for a minute and remembering the earlier French lesson, Harry asked, "Do you speak French by any chance?"

Edward drew himself up and said in a mortally offended tone, "I'll have you know, I have several French degrees!"

Harry looked at the vampire uncertainly, but relaxed when he started to laugh. Although he was unsure whether it had been a joke or not, he was just relieved that Edward wasn't insulted by his question.

"Let's see what you know." He floundered for a questioned, and settled on something simple to test the waters. "Quel age as-tu?" [How old are you?]

Luckily this was one of the questions Hermione had taught him. Now he just needed to remember his numbers. "Erm… j'ai dix-sept ans?" [I'm 17 years old] He winced internally at his horrendous accent. "Et.. tu?"

"Toi." Edward corrected. "Et j'ai cent sept ans." [I'm 107 years old]

Harry tightened his jaw, so his mouth wouldn't fall open. He'd momentarily forgotten that vampires didn't age outwardly, as it was hard to remember when Edward looked like a model.

"Es-tu choqué? Je suis très désolé, je n'aurais pas dû vous le dire sans prévenir." [Are you shocked? I'm really sorry; I shouldn't have told you that without warning.]

He didn't have a clue what any of it meant past the apology, but he couldn't help but think that Edward speaking French was attractive.

All of a sudden, Edward stiffened as he caught sight of Rosalie attempting to hide behind a book, obviously eavesdropping on the situation. Shit. He hoped Carlisle hadn't become suspicious.

He leaned right in next to James, and breathed in his ear "Just so you know, my sister is listening in on us. So don't say anything you wouldn't want the rest of my family to know."

Harry jumped slightly as he felt the vampire's cool breath in his ear. His heart rate picked up slightly at the close contact. Knowing the vampire would hear the change in tempo, he flushed with embarrassment.

Edward raised his eyebrow at James, but made no further comment.

Confused, Harry wondered why it had sounded more like a warning than just playful advice. To avoid any more embarrassing situations, Harry shoved a piece of paper with a hastily scribbled note on across the table to the vampire.

**Why would you warn me about your family?**

Edward pushed the piece of paper back towards him, after writing a reply.

**_Let's just say, I'm starting to wonder about whether we're on the right side of the war. The rest of my family have no such qualms._**

Biting his lip Harry stared at the beautiful calligraphy that reflected Edward perfectly. He _really _wanted to know whether they were on the same side, but he couldn't bear to find out that they had to be enemies. Edward seemed too _nice_ to be a Voldemort supporter, but then surely even some of the death eaters must have be kind and loving towards their families? Why did even just having a friend have to be so bloody complicated?

**We can't skirt around the subject forever. I can't deal with not knowing**

**_I agree. Although I wouldn't know what to do if we were on different sides._**

Harry felt exactly the same. I couldn't just sit there and listen to Edward proclaim his allegiance to Voldemort. There had to be another way to find out…

Suddenly he had it.

**We could write down our side and our reasoning on a piece of paper, keeping them folded so the other can't see them. Then when we leave, we'll swap them, and we can look at them when we get home?**

Edward had to admit, it would be a hell of a lot easier doing it that way.

**_Okay. We should also put our phone numbers, so that we can talk if we need to._**

"What about tomorrow?" Harry asked.

Realising he'd forgotten to tell James, he apologised, "Oh, I'm really sorry, I forgot to say! I won't be in tomorrow: it's going to be sunny."

Despite the cloud that was hanging over them, Harry failed to suppress his curiosity. "Why can't you go into the sun?" He wracked his brains, but couldn't come up with anything other than a ridiculous muggle myth he'd heard. "You don't sparkle, do you?" he asked, wrinkling his nose.

Edward laughed. What kind of question was that!? "No! We just burn really rapidly, and it kills us if we stay in direct sunlight for more than 10 minutes."

Harry felt incredibly stupid. Of course. That made a lot more sense.

Clearing his throat, Edward attempted to salvage the lesson, and decided to teach James all of the past tenses of French. He was pleased when James quickly mastered the perfect and the imperfect. The pluperfect and the past historical were a bit more of an uphill struggle, so after that he thought it wise to finish for the afternoon.

Harry ripped off a piece of paper, and gesturing to it said, "Right, shall we do this then?"

The vampire nodded, and scrawled on a piece of scrap paper, carefully shielding it from view. He followed suite, and then folded it multiple times until the message was completely unreadable from the outside. Seeing that Edward had done the same, he held his out.

As Edward took the proffered paper and handed over his own, he was slightly surprised to realise how much he wanted them to be on the same side. James was someone that he genuinely got along with, and who didn't care about his vampirism. He knew it would be difficult for him if he had to give up the promising friendship.

* * *

Sirius had never been so exhausted in his life. He had thought that being an auror was the hardest work he would ever do. How wrong he was.

The shop seemed to attract all the elderly ladies within a 30 mile radius, and they just kept coming. One delightful lady called Ethel had squawked at him for 15 minutes about her cat's water infection, and then hit him with her stick when he didn't give her the "tastiest looking tarte tatin". Another, Maureen, had asked if he would marry her granddaughter, after telling him in hushed tones that she was threatening to elope with a _girl_, which would bring shame to the family.

Who knew muggles could be so awful? Right now he'd happily take a death eater.

He jumped as a cold hand touched his arm. "Paddy?" Esme asked, "It's coming up to closing time. Take a seat, and when I've put everything away we'll talk about how today went."

Sinking to a chair at the nearest empty table, he sighed in relief. A slice of black forest gateaux was pushed into his hands by Esme, and he smiled gratefully at her.

She walked back over to the counter to cover up the cakes. "Do you want to take some cakes home? When they've been out for a few days we can't sell them anymore."

Sirius' ears pricked up. At least this job had some perks. "Yes please!" He popped a bit of cake in his mouth, and sighed in pleasure. "You'll probably end up getting a new customer once my godson tastes them."

Esme smiled at him, starting to wipe down the surfaces. "Right, well I think you did really well today. I promise you won't get a marriage proposition every day." she giggled. "Thursdays are always busy, as the bingo brings in the old ladies."

Sirius made a mental note to avoid working on Thursdays in the future.

As if sensing his next question, Esme said wryly, "I'm afraid Ethel is a regular too." She watched amused as he groaned dramatically and put his head in his hands. "Don't worry they grow on you." she assured him.

"Yeah, like some sort of poisonous mould." Sirius muttered darkly.

Esme laughed. Yet again, she was so glad that she'd employed Paddy, as he was sure to make every day much more interesting. She made her way over to his table, clutching a cardboard box filled with various treats.

Remembering the text message she had received from her husband a few hours ago, she said, "Why don't you take the next two days off to rest and recuperate, and then come in on Sunday?"

"Okay, I'll be there. Same time as today?"

Esme nodded, and cleared up Paddy's empty plate. "Right, well I'll let you get off home now. We wouldn't want to deprive your godson of those cakes, would we?"

"He would never forgive me." Sirius agreed. As he headed out of the door, he couldn't help but think that things were finally looking up for them.

* * *

"Harry?" Sirius called, walking in through the front door. "Are you home yet?"

He swallowed audibly as he saw his godson standing in the door of the kitchen tapping his foot with an annoyed expression on his face. He hated the fact that someone who was 20 years younger than him could make him feel like a naughty child.

"Siri. I can't believe you didn't tell me that your job is with Esme Cullen."

Shit. He knew he should have told him, but he didn't want to enter into an argument about how much of a hypocrite he was.

Irrigated by the lack of answer, Harry continued, "I mean I really wouldn't care, if it wasn't for the fact that you had such a shit fit when you found out about the Cullens going to school with me."

The animagus looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry Harry, I really am. You know what I'm like, I overreact. I just didn't want you to think I was a hypocrite."

"You kind of _are_ a hypocrite Padfoot."

Sirius threw away his pride and apologised, "Listen Harry, I'm really sorry okay? I was wrong, I'll admit that." Attempting to lessen the tension, he shook the box in his hand and said, "Esme gave me lots of delicious cakes, but you can't have one unless you forgive me!"

Laughing at his godfather's puppy dog eyes, and pleased by him admitting he was wrong, Harry was happy to leave the subject alone. He grabbed the box eagerly and opened the lid. With his mouth watering, he hurried into the kitchen to grab some plates. He could hear Sirius following behind, and by the time he got to the table with the plates, the older man was already sitting at the table.

Deciding to try something different, Sirius grabbed a slice of prinzregententorte. Despite the stupid name, he had to admit that it tasted great. He stopped with a piece of cake half way up to his mouth, seeing that Harry was sitting at staring at a folded piece of paper.

"Harry? What is it?" he asked, concerned.

The younger boy looked up in surprise. "Edward and I wrote each other a note saying what side of the war we're on and why. I haven't opened it yet." he explained.

Sirius put down his cake, and leaned over to rub Harry's shoulder reassuringly. "Read it. I'll be right here with you."

Grateful for the support, Harry slowly undid the piece of paper.

* * *

**Sorry! I **_**know**_** vampires sparkle in Twilight, but I always thought that was weird, so I changed it.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you again to everyone who has reviewed, I love knowing what people think of my writing!**

**Warning: swearing**

* * *

**_James,_**

**_There is no easy way to put this, so I'll just come out with it._**

**_My family support Voldemort._**

**_I, on the other hand, am starting to doubt whether we are on the right side. Yes, I want the equal rights for magical creatures, and I understand the worries of muggles knowing about the wizarding world, but I detest the way Voldemort went about it. When Harry Potter finally killed him, I was actually really relieved. I wanted no further part in the war, but with my family I had no choice._**

**_If you are against Voldemort's ideas and his death eaters, then I ask for your help: I can't defy my family alone. Although I think Esme may be having similar thoughts, but I can't be sure right now._**

**_If you are not on my side, and are to be my enemy, then I just beg that you don't tell my family: Carlisle would have me killed instantly._**

**_Edward._**

**_07901 248971_**

Sirius paled dramatically as he looked at the crumpled paper. "Could it be a trap?" he asked fearfully. He desperately hoped that Esme was on their side. She was starting to feel almost like a friend, and god knows he needed one now that Remus was gone.

His godson needed a true friend too, so he desperately hoped for his sake that Edward was being genuine.

"We said we'd tell the truth when we wrote those notes, and I believe him."

"Harry, sometimes you can be too…" Sirius trailed off, unsure of how to say what he wanted without offending him.

Sighing, Harry asked, "Trusting? Naïve?" When his godfather looked like he was about to object, he insisted, "I believe him Siri. Please just trust me on this."

Sirius felt his resolve waver as he saw the determination in Harry's face. He replied, "Okay, I'll leave it. Just please promise me that you'll be careful?"

"Constant vigilance." Harry agreed, grinning as he recited Mad-Eye's favourite phrase.

Sirius echoed his godson's grin. As much as Mad-Eye Moody had lived up to his name, he had definitely given good advice.

Noticing the time, Harry got up and started getting the ingredients ready for dinner. He still didn't expect Sirius to help, and to be honest his cooking tasted much better than his godfather's terrifying concoctions. Just when he'd started making the garlic mushrooms, Sirius spoke up. "Do you think Esme is on our side?" he asked fearfully.

"I really don't know. I can ask Edward when I see him, but even _he_ isn't sure."

Sirius worried his lip. She seemed far too nice to be on Voldemort's side, but then you could never tell. Take Snivellus, for example: he had been a greasy git and the resident dungeon bat, but was apparently one of the good guys.

"Right well, I can always try and drop some hints at work, and see what happens." He murmured, thinking aloud. Running his hand through his hair distractedly, he read over the notes once more.

Noticing a sentence he hadn't before, he laughed. "Oh Harry, I think you're his _hero_!" he exclaimed in a sickly sweet voice. His laughter quickly died down when a piece of limp, wet lettuce slapped him in the face.

* * *

Edward reached into his pocket for the sixth time, fingering the piece of paper sitting in it. He desperately needed to know what it said, but if he was to lose James now, he wanted them to have a few more minutes of being friends before everything shattered. Had James opened the note he was given? Would it have made him relieved? Or would he be furious that he was defecting?

Finally, sick of the unanswered questions constantly revolving in his head, he pulled out the bit of paper. Lying back on his bed, he unfolded it with bated breath.

**Vo****ldemort killed my parents. I saw him torture and kill so many people that I knew, and I heard about many others. He destroyed so many lives and even now that he's gone, his death eaters are still destroying more.**

**Having said that, I think you can guess which side I'm on.**

**07902 376990**

Shit. Well that certainly explained a lot.

He wondered when James' parents had been killed. Maybe that was why he moved to Forks in the first place. If that was the case, he could empathise as he'd lost his own parents aged 17 too. For someone who had seen so much pain, James was surprisingly strong. He would probably be a mess if he'd been through all of that.

This made Edward more certain than ever that changing sides was the right thing to do. He couldn't work alongside people who had hurt James so badly.

Despite the sadness washing over him because of James' situation, he couldn't help but feel a flood of relief. As ridiculous as it was after only having known James for a week, he knew he would have been upset to lose their friendship. Since he was turned he had never really been close to anyone outside of his vampire family. Now that he was turning away from them, James was all he really had left.

He didn't know what he would have done if he'd been a Voldemort supporter.

Edward needed to see him. Grabbing his phone he hurriedly entered and saved James' number, before shooting off a text.

**Meet me after school tomorrow?**

As the seconds dragged into a few minutes with no reply, Edward started to get nervous.

Maybe he didn't want to remain friends with him after all. Or was he scared of his family? Or him? He just hoped that James believed him.

When his phone bleeped, he instantly pounced on it.

**When and where?**

As desperate as it might seem, he wanted the other boy to meet him straight after school finished. He didn't want to creep James out though, so maybe he should suggest a little bit later…

He also needed somewhere private and shady to meet James, and clearly his house was out. Of course! His meadow! That would be perfect so long as they stuck to the shady areas. He quickly sent off another text.

**5? Just inside the national park?**

This time, a message came back almost immediately, and he sighed in relief as he read the text.

**Okay. I can apparate. Do you have coordinates?**

Apparition coordinates?! Edward hoped that GPS used the same system, otherwise he had no clue. He quickly looked them up on the internet, and after committing them to memory, he exited the webpage and sent them off to James.

Fiddling with his fingers absent-mindedly, Edward started to think about what he should say to the other boy when he met him.

However, before he came up with anything concrete, he heard Esme calling him from downstairs. After hurriedly hiding the note under the mattress of his bed, he hurried downstairs to see his family sitting around the dining table yet again. Family meetings were starting to feel like the norm in this house!

From Carlisle's smug expression, Edward could only assume that it wasn't about something he was going to like. Hearing Carlisle's equally smug thoughts, he groaned inwardly.

"We have our orders for the attack on Seattle." Carlisle announced. He watched as Alice and Jasper grinned at each other, and held back a laugh when Emmett excitedly held his hand out for a high five and Rosalie just looked at it disdainfully. He cleared his throat in order to gain their attention. "We will leave mid-morning on Sunday, and we must have good news to report back to the Carrows on Monday."

Emmett whooped. "Yes! Only a few days to go!"

"I think we should feed every day from now until then, including Sunday morning." Jasper suggested. "It'll help to make us the strongest we can be, and then there will be no chance of failure." His time working with Maria's army had ensured that he knew all the best ways to attack others. When he had something to offer that would help, he actually felt like part of the family.

Carlisle nodded in approval. "I want you all to remember that the primary goal is to kill. Everyone must die."

"We can torture them though can't we?" Rosalie checked. "The humans deserve to suffer."

Carlisle suppressed a grin. If only all his children were so bloodthirsty. "Of course, just don't make it obvious that it was a vampire attack."

Turning to his wife, he asked, "Esme, did you ask Mr Black about working?"

"Yes, he's agreed to work all day." she replied. Seeing her husband smile approvingly, Esme relaxed. She was incredibly grateful that she was allowed to stay behind, as trying to hide her horror at the torture and death would have been too difficult. Carlisle would have been furious if she'd failed to hurt anyone.

"Excellent." He smirked. "We have no idea how powerful he could be, so we need to make sure that he and his godson don't suspect a thing."

Rosalie snorted. "Pfft. _Powerful_?!"

"Don't make the mistake of thinking wizards are like humans, Rosalie." Carlisle warned. "Even those with little magic can be a threat, so those who are powerful enough can kill us instantly."

Edward watched as she sat back looking suitably chastised. It was nice to see his perfect sister be taken down a peg or two. Turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand, he wondered what he should do when they all went to Seattle. He'd need something to occupy him so he wouldn't just sit there feeling guilty about not being able to stop the attack.

"Carlisle?" Edward asked hesitantly. When the older vampire nodded, he continued, "Should I ask James if he wants to do something on Sunday?

'_I'm starting to think you actually _like_ that disgusting human_.' Edward cringed inwardly as he heard Rosalie's malicious thoughts. He fought to keep his face straight, and attempted to match her sneer to give her the impression that he was disgusted by the idea.

His attention was brought back to the elder vampire when he replied, "Good idea Edward. That way, neither of them will have any cause to be suspicious."

* * *

Lying in bed, Harry tossed and turned desperately trying to get to sleep. As much as he tried to make his brain shut up, it just wasn't happening. He really needed tomorrow afternoon to come so that he could talk to Edward.

It was vital that he found out the whole story about why he was turning from his family. If he was being sincere, he hoped that he'd be able to help him. He knew only too well how death eaters treated people who defected to the light side.

He knew Sirius would understand how Edward felt, and he was reasonably certain that if Esme changed sides too, his godfather would be willing to help them both. After all, he'd turned from his own family, so he'd be more help than Harry who'd never really had one.

By now it was the early hours of the morning, so Harry grabbed a dreamless sleep potion from the bathroom, as he knew he wouldn't be able to function properly the next day without it.

* * *

The morning passed by in a dazed blur for Harry. In every lesson all he could focus on was his meeting with Edward. Each teacher gave up on him after a few minutes of failing to make him pay attention. Happy to be left alone, Harry immersed himself in his thoughts, running over what he wanted to say later.

When it came to lunch time, Harry headed to a secluded bench around the back of the school and pulled out a sandwich he'd hastily thrown together that morning. Obviously Edward wasn't there to sit with, and he didn't want to face Jess and Mike. It wasn't that they intimidated him; they were just a complete pain in the arse and he really didn't feel up for dealing with them today.

Biology without Edward wasn't quite as bad as it could have been, thanks to the tutoring, and he made it through gym, miraculously without even a scratch.

When he walked out of the school gates, he still had half an hour before he was supposed to meet Edward. Deciding it wasn't worth going home just to head out again almost straight away, he decided to walk to the national park to meet him. It would kill time, and if he got lost he could always use the apparition coordinates.

* * *

Sirius was bored. He'd found a crossword in the back of a newspaper, but as he knew next to nothing about muggle culture, he'd only been able to put in three words, and even now he wasn't certain that they were right.

Knowing that he wasn't going to be at work until Sunday made him feel ridiculously restless. Aside from the fact that it was a good hiding place, Forks really had nothing to offer.

He was _almost_ tempted to walk around the town centre, but as stupid as it sounded, he didn't want to risk running into Ethel or any of her equally horrendous friends.

It was times like this that he missed Moony with every bone in his body. Everyone had always thought that he and James were best friends, but in reality he'd always been closer to Remus. _He_ had always been there for him. When he'd been disowned by his family, Moony had understood, as his own family was horrified by his affliction. Even when he'd been in Azkaban, his old friend hadn't deserted him.

Seeing Fenrir Greyback tear him limb from limb had felt like his heart was being ripped out. Of course, he'd killed the bastard instantly, but even his revenge couldn't bring Moony back.

Desperate to clear his thoughts before he sunk too far down into his misery, Sirius transformed into Padfoot and rushed out of the door.

Running always seemed to clear his head.

He ran until the outskirts of Forks were far behind him, but still he pushed on. The sun on his back was a welcome change from rain, and encouraged him to pick up his speed.

Suddenly, when he sniffed the air smelled salty. Sticking his nose up in the air, he followed the scent curiously.

Spotting the sea in the distance, his ears perked up. He slowed his pace while running to the beach, taking his time to enjoy the scenery. He hadn't been seen the sea since he was a child, having been too wrapped up in the Order to take a relaxing holiday anywhere.

Once he was close, he trotted eagerly to the edge of the water. Because of the lack of clouds the sea was a beautiful blue, but Sirius knew better than to go in and get wet. Harry hated it when he made the house smell like wet dog.

As he sniffed the air, he caught an odd scent that he didn't recognise. Shrugging it off, he snuffled around the beach, enjoying the feel of the fine sand under his paws. He mapped out a large stretch of the beach, trying to memorise it for future reference.

Finally, exhausted after the running and exploring, he flopped down behind a large piece of driftwood in an attempt to shelter himself from the heat of the sun.

The surprising warmth of the air and the soft sounds of the waves lapping relaxed him, and he let his eyes shut lazily.

* * *

Edward stood under the shade of the trees waiting for James to appear. Looking at his watch, he realised that the other boy was a few minutes late. He really hoped he'd given him the right coordinates, otherwise they might never find each other in the forest.

Just as he was about to reach for his phone, a small popping noise behind his made him turn around. James was grinning at him sheepishly, and he relaxed.

"Hi Edward." he said shyly.

Edward shot him a crooked grin. "Hi yourself."

Harry opened his mouth, but promptly shut it again as he realised that he didn't know what to say. As if realising his dilemma, Edward took charge.

"We should go to a meadow that I found so we can talk. No-one ever makes it that far into the forest, so we won't be overheard or seen."

"Is it far?" Harry asked.

Edward hesitated. If they hiked it would be at least an hour, if not two before they got there. It would be much quicker and easier for the other boy to get on his back, and for him to carry him there. However, he couldn't see James being happy with that idea somehow.

"Not for me." He started. Thinking carefully about the wording of his offer, he said, "I know it's probably not an appealing idea to you, but… if I sprint with you on my back it will take minutes rather than hours."

To his astonishment, James' eyes instantly lit up. "I've ALWAYS wanted to know how fast a vampire can run! I guess this is my chance!"

To cover his confusion, Edward turned around, and gestured for James to clamber up.

Were all wizards like this? He had known that James didn't judge him for being a vampire like most of the wizarding world seemed to, but to actually trust him this much, and to be excited about going at vampire speed? He was truly lucky to have stumbled across someone so unique and accepting.

Harry looked up at Edward's back and gulped. After his years at the Dursleys, he was quite a bit shorter than most of his peers, Edward included. He was going to have to jump, but he didn't want to hurt him. Finally remembering the vampire's strength, he took a deep breath and launched himself at the older boy.

Realising that he was dangling off, as he only had one arm loosely around Edward's neck and the opposite leg half around his waist, Harry scrambled around trying to secure himself further. Falling off in the middle of the forest was _not_ something that he was eager to try out.

Edward reigned in his laughter as best he could as he felt James trying to secure himself on his back. After a mess of pointy elbow jabs and small kicks, he finally felt that it would be okay to run. If he had still been human, he knew he would have been covered in small bruises by the morning. He took a moment to revel in the smell of the other boy, glad to be able to enjoy such a delicious scent without any bloodlust.

Suddenly Harry realised just how close he was to the vampire. He could feel the hardness of Edward's chest where he'd wrapped his arms around him. His front was pressed completely up against the taller boy's back, and he could feel the muscles rippling as he prepared to run.

"Ready?" Edward murmured over his shoulder. The physical contact was slightly throwing him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close to anybody. Nonetheless, he had to admit that it was nice to have something more than the occasional hug from Esme or a pat on the back from Emmett.

Harry tightened his grip. "Ready."

In an instant, the trees turned into an insane blur of green and brown as they streaked past. The wind whistled past them, causing Harry's unruly locks to whip around him. It was certainly faster than riding on a broom, but with his seeker's sight he was just about able to make out a herd of wild deer scattering off to their right. The small splinters of sunlight falling through the gaps in the trees flickered around them, making the forest look almost magical.

The pressure on Harry's ears was becoming immense, so he rested his head wearily on Edward's shoulder. He felt rather than heard the vampire chuckle.

Up ahead a clearing was swiftly becoming visible, so Harry lifted his head to enjoy the final few seconds on the run. When they reached the edge of the meadow, Edward stopped abruptly, so he relaxed his grip. "Wow." He mumbled, attempting to disentangle himself from the vampire.

To Harry's surprise, Edward slowly and carefully knelt down, meaning that it was easy for him to just step off.

"Wow." He repeated. "Can we run back when we're done?"

Edward chuckled and sat down on the ground, settling himself against a tree in the shade. It wasn't as if he needed to sit down, but he didn't want James to feel uncomfortable. When the other boy continued to stand there, he gestured for him to sit down.

Arranging himself next to Edward, Harry struggled to think of something to say. All the ideas he'd had during the day had deserted him. Luckily, it seemed that Edward knew what he wasn't to talk about.

"James, my family are planning an attack on Sunday. Your godfather is going into work with Esme, and I'm supposed to see you, so you don't get suspicious of us."

Shocked, Harry gasped, "What!?" When he recieved no reply, he pushed for more information. "Who are you attacking? And why didn't you tell me before?"

Weighing up his options, Edward decided that in this situation honesty was the best policy. "My family is to go to the wizarding settlement in Seattle and kill everyone who is there." he said, in an apologetic tone.

"No they bloody well won't. Not if I have anything to do with it." Harry muttered. Pushing himself away from Edward, he demanded, "How long have you known about this?"

"Less than a week."

Harry glared at the vampire. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this sooner! We have to stop this!"

Edward tried to put his hand on the other boy's shoulder, but was angrily shoved off. He took a calming breath, and said, "James. As much as I don't want this to happen, it has to." Seeing the fury in James' eyes, he swiftly elaborated. "My family are the only people, apart from the Death Eaters, who know about the attack. If someone intervenes, they will realise that someone has betrayed them. Because of our reluctance to join the attack, Esme and myself will be under suspicion."

As Edward explained, Harry felt his anger dim as he began to understand the repercussions that interfering would bring. Although he was desperate to stop it, he had to admit that it _would_ be impossible to do so without bringing Edward into suspicion. Biting his lip, he tried to resign himself to their fate. Edward's first statement suddenly sunk in, and he asked, "You're not going with them?"

"Esme hates violence, and so do I, so Carlisle let us stay here. Although obviously you know that my personal reasons have more to do with disagreeing with their principles and the way they go about achieving their goals."

Regarding the vampire, Harry asked quietly, "You really want to go against them?"

Edward nodded solemnly, "Will you help me?"

"Of course I will. I'll do whatever I can." Harry assured him.

"My family really can't find out. If Carlisle doesn't kill me, then the Carrows will."

Harry ground his teeth. He had been sure that they'd been put in Azkaban, but that clearly wasn't the case. "If the chance arises, they are mine." he growled. At Edward's confused expression, he clarified, "They tortured the students at Hogwarts for an entire year, hurting everyone I knew. I never got to finish them off at the final battle."

James had been at the final battle?! Edward had heard stories about it, and all of them made it sound horrendous and bloody. However, he was sure that they were nothing compared to the horror of actually being there. He looked over and saw that James' emerald eyes had clouded over. Unsure what to do, but not wanting James to feel like he was suffering alone, he tentatively put an arm around the younger boy's shoulders and squeezed lightly.

Taking both himself and Edward by surprise, Harry leaned into the embrace and rested his head on other boy's shoulder. It was comforting to be held like that; he hadn't been held by anyone in months. Sirius liked to think he was too manly for hugs, and everyone else had deserted him.

Edward slightly tightened his grip on the smaller boy, enjoying their close proximity. For some reason he felt oddly protective of James, and he found it hard to see him upset.

After a few minutes, Harry pulled away, embarrassed. "Sorry." he mumbled. As nice as it had been, he didn't want to make Edward uncomfortable, and he felt self-conscious showing his emotion in front of others. He wracked his brains for something to talk about, and then said, "In your note you mentioned Esme. Do you know…?" He trailed off, unsure how to finish the question.

"I can't say for certain James. It's incredibly difficult to get her on her own and her thoughts are quite quiet."

Harry furrowed his brows, trying to think of a way around it. "Sunday! The rest of your family will be away! We can meet up with Esme and Paddy, and find out the truth."

Edward nodded, and asked sadly, "What if she isn't with us?"

"If the worst comes to the worst, I suppose we can always obliviated her." Harry said grudgingly. In response to the questioning look Edward gave him, he explained, "Remove her memory of the conversation."

As much as Edward disliked the idea of messing with Esme, he understood the need for secrecy. He also had to admit that it was the best plan they had.

Harry suddenly realised that while they'd been talking, the sun had been rapidly sinking in the sky. It was getting quite late, and he panicked after casting a quick tempus. "Shit Edward, I need to go. Sir-Paddy will probably be panicking about where I am."

Swallowing his disappointment, Edward asked, "Do you want me to run you back?"

Harry really did want him to, but he knew that he needed to get back straight away. Shaking his head, he said apologetically, "Sorry, not tonight: I need to get home."

"Okay." Edward agreed. "See you on Sunday?"

Harry nodded. "See you on Sunday." He smiled at Edward, thinking how he looked even more like a model when the light was fading. Forcefully focusing his thoughts on home, he apparated away.

Edward stood staring at the spot that James had been occupying only seconds earlier. With a small sigh, he turned around and started to run home.

* * *

Sirius was wrenched awake with a start.

A wet snuffling noise close to his ear made him jerk around, and he came face to face with a wolf. For one stupid instant, his heart leapt: Moony!

Then he came to his senses and abruptly pushed the thought away, trying to stay calm. He was pretty sure this was no ordinary wolf, although it didn't smell quite like Remus used to. Despite that, he was reasonably certain that it was a werewolf.

He groaned internally. How could he have let his guard down like that? The wolf could so easily be dangerous, and he'd just fallen asleep outside with no protection. He felt like such an idiot sometimes.

Apprehensively, he clambered to his feet and faced the huge creature in front of him.

Experimentally, he raised one doggy eyebrow, to test his theory that it wasn't a wild wolf. To his complete surprise, it gave a loud barking sound, which sounded almost like a laugh. As it moved, the sun glinted of its russet fur, momentarily blinding him. Dazed, he blinked. Should he transform back into a human? Actually, maybe not: he didn't particularly feel like getting eaten today. And Harry would kill him.

He watched as the creature suddenly tensed and pricked its ears, as if being called. Sirius shifted nervously from one paw to another, having no clue what would happen next.

The wolf threw back his head and gave one long howl. It turned to Sirius and bowed its head, before running off into the forest.

Sirius hadn't realised that it was so late, until he noticed the dark sky. Shivering slightly, he sprinted into the forest. Harry would have been home hours ago, and would almost certainly be worried sick. Transforming back into his human form under the cover of the trees and wrenching his thoughts away from the wolf, he apparated home.

* * *

Carlisle looked up at the sound of knocking on his office door. "Yes?" he called, just relieved that it hadn't been the floo.

He was only mildly surprised to see his eldest son sticking his head around the doorframe. He shoved his mountain on paper work to one side, motioning for him to come in and sit down. "Edward." he said welcomingly. "What can I do for you?"

"I know which side of the war James is on."


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you again to every who has reviewed / favourited / followed by story! It means a lot to me that people are reading it and enjoying it :)**

**Warning: violence, swearing**

* * *

As the sun slowly rose in the sky, Carlisle was absentmindedly drumming his fingertips on the edge of his desk.

He wasn't entirely sure whether to be disappointed or relieved that the Blacks were neutral. Hopefully this way it would be easier to steer them in the right direction, especially considering Edward's friendship with the boy. Maybe Esme would be able to convince the older one too, and then they wouldn't need to worry about any opposition.

Of course, they might prefer to stay neutral like those wretched wolves. However, he didn't understand why _wizards_ wouldn't pick a side. It was _their_ war, after all.

Frankly, the uncertainty worried him: he liked to be in control. Not knowing, not being able to say for sure what would happen, always wore down his calm façade.

He tried to push the concerns out of his mind. Right now, concentrating on today's attack was the most important thing.

* * *

"Any plans for today Harry?"

Harry looked up at his godfather and hastily swallowed his mouthful of cereal. "I'm meeting Edward at 3 o'clock, and then we thought we could meet up with you and Esme at 5 o'clock when you finish work?"

Sirius gulped. "To find out about her feelings on the war?"

The younger wizard nodded, and added, "Edward thinks it's the best way. We decided that if we needed, to we could obliviate her."

Sighing, Sirius admitted that it was worth a shot. He put down the rest of his toast, his appetite gone. Esme was the only person in Forks that he had to talk to apart from Harry. He couldn't help but desperately hope that she would want to turn from her family.

He was brought out of his thoughts by his godson telling him that he was going upstairs to do some homework. He looked up, and just as Harry was about to walk out the kitchen door, he called, "Oh Harry, before I forget!" He waited until he was sure he had Harry's complete attention before he continued, "I don't want you to go on the Indian Reservation, or at least not by yourself."

"Why not?" the younger wizard asked interestedly. His curiosity only grew when his godfather averted his eyes, and his cheeks reddened. "Why not?" he repeated slightly impatiently.

Pushing down his embarrassment, Sirius looked up. "I went for a run as Padfoot, and ran into some sort of giant wolf, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't just an ordinary wolf. I mean it didn't attack me or anything, and I know you can defend yourself, but…"

"You'd feel better if I avoided it anyway?" Harry supplied. He felt slightly irritated at being mollycoddled, but he squashed the feeling, reminding himself that Sirius was just trying to look out for him.

Sirius nodded, glad that Harry wasn't angry with him. Casting a quick _tempus_, he realised it was getting on for quarter to 10. "Right, I'm off to work. I'll see you at 5?"

* * *

Once Esme had left for work, the rest of the Cullens jumped into action. Edward stood to one side, attempting to make it look like he was interested.

Alice and Rosalie rushed upstairs to put on clothing suitable for fighting, and Edward rolled his eyes as he heard Alice complaining about how unfashionable she was going to look.

Addressing his sons, Carlisle said, "I've got some human weapons for us to use." He unzipped the large suitcase on the dining table, and starting carefully extracting its contents. Seeing the questioning look that Emmett and Edward shared, he explained, "Those who learn magic tend to neglect physical fighting. Their offensive spells will merely glance off our skin, and so with our speed and arms we will easily overcome them."

The eldest vampire gently tucked his weapons of choice into his holster. Lining the rest up on the table, he waited for his children to choose their own.

"A gravity knife!" Emmett shouted excitedly. "I've always wanted to use one of these!" He grabbed the weapon and peered at in with intense interest.

Although Jasper was more reserved with his inspection of the different knives, he was completely in his element. Pulling a sword cane from the table, it struck him as similar to the thin but deadly Cavalry Saber he'd used in the Confederate Army. He admired the intricate dragon carving at the top of the cane, before slowly removing the cane shaft to reveal the blade beneath.

Happy with their attire, the girls flitted back downstairs. They held little interest in the specifics of the weapons in front of them, so they each just picked out a couple with lethal-looking blades.

Once the table was bare, Carlisle cleared his throat. "Remember to stick to the plan: we can't have the humans suspecting us. Use your knives, rip them apart or crush them to death, but don't drain them. We've all fed well, so I trust you all to have the restraint to remain vegetarian."

"Will their blood be like James'?" asked Jasper worriedly. He didn't think he'd be able to resist the bloodlust otherwise.

Carlisle nodded. "Anyone with magic will have blood like his. However, there may well be muggle relatives or even squibs, who will smell like ordinary humans."

Edward waved them off as they got into the least ostentatious car in the garage. He swallowed down his disgust as he wished them luck and told Emmett to 'get one' for him.

* * *

Having decided to meet for a couple of hours before going to see Esme and Sirius, Edward was sitting on a bench in the park, waiting for James to meet him.

Hopefully James would be able to distract him from the imminent conversation. Despite their memory-removing back-up plan, he really wasn't looking forward to it. If Esme wasn't with him he would lose all his family, and he didn't think he could handle that. He'd already lost his human family, and he would be devastated to lose all of his vampire family too.

He raised his head as he caught James' familiar scent.

"Hey Edward." Harry said, plopping himself down onto the bench.

"Hey yourself."

Seeing the vampire's slightly strained smile, Harry asked gently, "Ready for later?"

Edward shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Attempting to take Edward's mind off his worries, Harry launched into an anecdote about him and Sirius going out for lunch the day before. "… and then he _still_ wrote his number on the bill, despite a warning from the manager about harassing the staff!"

Edward chuckled. "I can't believe he thought that the waitress was flirting with _him_ rather than you!"

"Well, Paddy's always been a bit of a ladies' man from what I've heard. I don't think he can face the idea that he might be losing his touch."

"But if she was about 18, then surely she'd be more likely to go for you anyway? It's not exactly insulting if someone 20 years younger than you doesn't fancy you."

"I think he was just taking advantage of my surprise. I don't normally get hit on by strangers." Or at least, not in the muggle world, Harry thought.

Edward bit back a comment about how he wasn't surprised that he got hit on, in case he made James uncomfortable.

A sudden strong burst of wind made Harry shiver.

Edward quickly shrugged out of his jacket. "Here." he said softly, draping it over the younger boy's shoulders. At James' grateful look, he shot him a crooked grin.

As he snuggled into the warmth of the jacket, Harry couldn't help but notice how good it smelled. Surreptitiously he turned his head slightly and took a deeper breath, letting the sweet scent fill his nostrils. He jumped slightly as he heard Edward's voice.

"Just to check, can I call your godfather 'Paddy'?"

"Yes definitely. He'd hate it if you called him 'Mr Black'. I think it makes him feel old."

Edward laughed. He couldn't wait to meet James' godfather: he sounded like a very interesting man. Then he scrunched his face up in confusion. "If Paddy isn't your father, why do you share a surname?"

Harry froze. _Shit_.

"Er… he adopted me?" he offered weakly. His statement came out as more of a question, so he was relieved when Edward didn't comment other than cocking an eyebrow.

Desperately grasping for something to change the subject with, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "How did you become a vampire?" Realising how intrusive the question was, he hurriedly added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I mean… I know it's personal." Remembering that they were in a public place, he quickly cast a _muffliato_, so they wouldn't be overheard.

Edward shook his head in amusement. James' reluctance to offend others was very endearing. Maybe if he shared his own story, the other boy would be willing to tell him about his own.

Harry listened attentively as Edward told him about the Spanish influenza, his parents' deaths, and Carlisle saving him. He was confused about the slight bitterness he detected in the older boy's words, until he heard: "You know, I often wish he hadn't saved me. I think it would have been better to die then, than to live now as a soulless monster."

A rush a pity, followed quickly by anger went through Harry. "I can promise you Edward, you most definitely _do_ have a soul." he ground out. Before the vampire could interrupt, he put up his hand and continued. "I've met lots of magical creatures in my time; giants, werewolves, merepeople, centaurs, and even an acromantula! If a _giant spider_ that tried to _eat_ me has a soul, then I can guarantee that you do too."

Edward blinked in surprise: no one had ever defended him or his soul so vehemently before. Looking down at his lap, he apologised, "I'm sorry James, I just… I end up feeling like I'm a bit of a monster sometimes."

"The fact that you are even able to consider that you might have a monstrous nature must mean you have a soul." Harry insisted stubbornly.

Deciding to let the matter drop for now, Edward latched onto something that had caught his curiosity during James' rant. "You mentioned werewolves a minute ago. Does that mean you've met the Quileutes?"

"Huh?" Harry asked eloquently.

Edward suppressed a laugh. "Maybe not then. In La Push there is a pack of werewolves and I thought you might have come across them."

The memory of talking to Sirius that morning entered Harry's mind. "Wait! Si- my godfather said something about running into a wolf. He thought it felt unnatural."

"Ah right. Well we have a treaty with them; so long as we don't bite a human or go on their land, they won't expose us."

"What!? But you're _vegetarians_!" Harry said indignantly. "What about _them! _How is it_ not _dangerous when there's a pack of werewolves running around at full moon uncontrolled!?"

Edward looked at the smaller boy in confusion. "They would never hurt a human: they're only a danger to us. And what does the full moon have to do with anything?"

"Come on Edward." Harry rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows that werewolves only transform on the full moon."

The vampire laughed. "No, the Quileutes can transform at any time."

Harry blinked in surprise. "Huh. Well they aren't real werewolves then." He tilted his head to one side and considered it for a minute. "They must be shape-shifters or something…"

"You'd better not tell them that!" Edward chuckled. "I don't think they'd appreciate being called a fake werewolf." When James made no move to continue the conversation, he asked hesitantly, "You know my story now, may I know yours?"

Biting his lip, Harry thought about what he could tell the vampire. He trusted him, but he wasn't ready for him to find out exactly who he was just yet. "Well you already know that Voldemort killed by parents, and after that I lived with my aunt and uncle. When I was eleven I got my Hogwarts letter." Checking Edward's face for comprehension, he continued, "I met my best friends and gained a second family at school, and I was the happiest I'd ever been."

Edward watched as James' emerald eyes started to glisten with tears.

"After the final battle, everything changed. Voldemort was dead, and so were many of my friends and members of my second family. Those who were still alive abandoned me. Paddy was the only person who stuck by me, and to avoid what was happening back home, we moved here."

Seeing that James was desperately fighting tears, Edward shuffled along the bench and put his arm around the younger boy's shoulder. He decided that words wouldn't be of any use, so he just slowly rubbed James' shoulder, reminding him that he wasn't alone.

Knowing that Edward was there for him gave Harry the strength to hold back his tears. Taking a few deep breaths, Harry looked into the vampire's warm golden eyes, and whispered, "Thank you."

Edward squeezed his shoulder, before withdrawing his arm completely.

After thinking for a minute, Harry promised, "One day I'll tell you everything, but I can't right now." The understanding in Edward's eyes made him breathe a sigh of relief.

Edward checked his watch, and seeing the time hastily stood up. "It's almost time to meet at the shop. Shall we?"

* * *

The Cullens spread out around perimeters of the settlement.

Carlisle spotted faint green sparks in the distance. This was the Carrows' signal that the floos had been blocked, and anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards had been put in place. As much as the idea of acting like an animal disgusted him, the Cullen patriarch threw back his head and howled twice in succession.

Hearing Carlisle's signal the other four darted forwards instantly, honing in on their prey.

Emmett crashed through the window of the first house he saw. Avoiding the curses that were thrown at him, he quickly pinned the middle-aged witch to the floor and quickly slit her throat. He turned instantly as her muggle-scented husband attempted to smash him over the head with a vase. Growling animalistically, he ripped the man's head from his shoulders in one movement. Walking outside whistling, he headed to the house next-door.

Alice ran through the streets, setting houses alight and attacking anyone who tried to get past. The wizards who rushed outside to douse the flames were easily taken care of.

Jasper walked calmly into a manor house. Entering the dining room, he started barking out orders. His authoritative tone, threatening demeanour and raised sword meant that in less than a minute the entire family were lined up in front of him. He sprinted at each, expertly killing each of them with just one thrust of his sword through their chests. In less than thirty seconds all 14 lay dead on the floor.

Carlisle sprinted around the perimeter, cutting off anyone who attempted to escape.

Rosalie kicked down the door in front of her and burst into the dining room. The family sat there silently in shock, staring at the beautiful but wild-looking woman, until she rammed a knife into the chest of the family matriarch. Finally realised the danger, the children started to cry and scream, while the men desperately tried to protect them. Rosalie faltered: could she really kill children?

* * *

The hands of the clock slowly dragged themselves towards 5 o'clock.

As soon as the last customer left, Sirius threw himself into the nearest available chair. Bloody hell, and he'd thought his _first _shift had been bad! His day had start off just _brilliantly_ when some horrible snot-nosed kid kicked up a tantrum when he wasn't allowed two cakes. Then when his mum had finally given in and Sirius was handing them over, the disgusting creature had thrown up all over him.

Despite frantically scrubbing off the mess, the next three people in the queue had told him to take a bath!

Then, around lunchtime, a man had come in and given him a 10 minute lecture on how to make an omelette in a plastic bag. He'd then been _quizzed_ for a further 10 minutes on the exact quantities of the ingredients and the precise timings of the cooking. Clearly the man was eventually satisfied that Sirius would be able to make the dish, as he happily went off with his cake. After a couple of minutes, the man's wife had come up and apologised profusely, before telling him not to make it because it would probably poison him!

From now on, he would avoid Mr Newton at all costs.

Luckily the afternoon had passed without incident, but he was still utterly exhausted.

He turned around as he heard a soft laugh behind him. Esme walked towards him and settled in the seat opposite. "Sorry about today." she started. "You seem to have the worst luck when it comes to customers somehow."

Sirius grinned. "Maybe I just attract the loons."

"Well, it definitely makes things more interesting!" Esme giggled. "Despite everything that gets thrown at you, you've done amazingly well. I think you'll do very well at this job, and I'm really happy to have you on the staff."

Sirius beamed. He was relieved that he was actually doing well. He'd been really worried about being able to cope working with muggles, but it seemed that despite Harry's doubts, he was capable of becoming a part of their world.

They both turned around as there was a loud knock on the front door of the cake shop.

Esme was surprised to see her son and another boy at the door, and turned to Paddy letting her confusion show, so he would know that it was unplanned.

"Sorry!" He said sheepishly, running his hand through his hair. "Ha- James _did_ mention that they would be coming over when we finished at 5."

Ah. So the other boy was James. Esme hurried to unlock the door and let the boys in.

Edward smiled widely at his mum. "Hey Esme, I hope you don't mind us intruding."

She returned his smile, saying, "Don't be silly dear, of course I don't mind!"

Harry felt a small wave of sadness. Esme reminded him a lot of Mrs Weasley, with the way she seemed happy to see her son, and her use of loving endearments. He attempted to push the thoughts out and concentrate on the task at hand. This wasn't the time to get lost in old memories.

Esme then turned to the boy standing quietly by the door. "And you must be James?"

"That's right Mrs Cullen." he agreed, and then added, "It's lovely to meet you."

Smiling, Esme said, "Do call me Esme, please. 'Mrs Cullen' makes me feel old!"

Sensing that James would be fine with Esme, Edward briskly walked over to the man at the table who he assumed was James' godfather, and stuck out his hand. "It's nice to meet you Paddy; I've heard lots about you from James!"

Surprised but pleased, Sirius grabbed the vampire's hand and shook it warmly, saying, "All bad I hope?"

Edward winked at him. "That would be telling." Then he gestured to the seat next to him, "May I?"

"Go for it."

Harry and Esme made their way over, and sat in the two remaining chairs.

Sensing the slightly uneasy atmosphere around the table, Esme asked worriedly, "Now, what did you need to talk about? I'm assuming it's something important."

When the others kept quiet, Harry sighed and decided to take charge. Muttering under his breath he cast a silencing charm around them, so that any eavesdroppers would be sorely disappointed.

He decided it would be best to get straight down to business. Having heard about what Edward said to Carlisle, Harry started, "I don't know if Mr Cullen told you, but I'm neutral in this war, and so is Paddy." When he saw his godfather open his mouth to protest, he quickly kicked him in the shin as a warning.

Esme was slightly confused. Why would it matter whether the Blacks were neutral or not?

"Edward mentioned that you didn't always seem completely comfortable with the things your family does for the war." Ignoring Edward's glare, he continued, "We know about the attack today, and the fact that you didn't want to join in. I can guarantee you that any future attacks will almost certainly be crueller and on a larger scale. The Death Eaters won't rest until everyone who opposed Voldemort is dead."

Unwilling to get too hopeful, Esme questioned timidly, "What are you saying?"

Harry took a deep breath: it was now or never. "I'm saying… if you want to go against your family, we will protect you."

Had Esme had a beating heart, it would have leapt in her chest. She turned to her eldest son, scarcely able to believe it. "Edward?"

Edward looked his adoptive mother straight in the eye, and said as calmly as he could, "I can't do the things Carlisle asks of me. I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I don't agree with what we're fighting for. James has offered to help me, and I wanted to give you the chance too."

Esme was torn. She agreed completely with Edward, and wanted nothing more than to become neutral. However, there was her family to think about. Carlisle had rescued her and fixed her wounds, both physical and mental, and although she'd still have Edward if she defected, she'd lose the rest of her adopted children.

"I… I don't know." Esme stuttered. "Can I have a minute?"

Harry nodded and conjured a smaller silence ward around himself, Edward and Sirius. "What is she thinking?" he asked the telepathic vampire.

Edward briefly concentrated on Esme's thoughts, and then replied, "She desperately wants to say yes, but she doesn't want to lose her family."

Harry dropped the ward. "Esme?" Once he had her attention, he continued, "I lost my family to Voldemort when I was a baby. More recently I lost all of my second family apart from my godfather, as well as all my friends. Sometimes you have to lose the people you love by doing what is right, so if you accept our offer we will completely support you. You and Edward will still stay at your house, and for as long as you can remain above suspicion you will still have your family."

Esme looked at the young wizard in front of her with new eyes. The poor boy had been through so much in his short years, and yet he was still willing to offer help to those in need, even vampires. Her eyes shining with venomous tears that would never fall, she whispered, "Okay, I'll do it."

* * *

Finally, there was silence.

Smoke rose solemnly from multiple buildings, their inhabitants almost certainly burned to unrecognition.

Apart from the odd mangled body strewn by the side of the road and the five vampires surveying their work, the streets were empty. Autumnal leaves glistened with deep red blood in the fading light. The pavements were scattered with droplets of the humans' lifeblood, which had fallen from the vampire's saturated clothes.

The scent of blood was thick in the air, although that of the wizards' blood managed to overpower the pull of the muggles' blood.

They felt satisfaction and triumph: everything had gone according to plan. The magical government was still none the wiser and all of the citizens had been wiped out.

Had Jasper still been human, his adrenaline would have still been pumping around his body at top speed. He'd overcome his bloodlust, and still been able to kill. He'd suffered when feeling the fear and pain of his victims when in Maria's army, but today he had just felt powerful. Their pain had given him strength. He remembered the feeling from further back when he'd been the Major, and he couldn't wait for the next attack.

Only slightly weary after the attack, they starting walking back to the perimeter at a human pace.

Suddenly, all five of them snapped their heads up when a faint sobbing was heard. Emmett spotted the child first and grabbed a knife, but Jasper grabbed his arm, offering to take care of it.

Rosalie closed her eyes, but that didn't stop her from hearing the sound of a blade being roughly pushed through flesh. once she was certain that it was over, she opened her eyes, refusing to look in the direction that she knew the body lay.

Carlisle took one last triumphant look at the destroyed village. "Let's go."

* * *

**Just in case you were wondering… YES, the omelette thing _has_ actually happened to me when at work!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry! I know it's been a longer wait that usual, but real life completely took over! However, I have more free time now, so hopefully there won't be such a long wait any time soon.**

**Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/followed :)**

* * *

Once they'd got home last night, Harry had told him about the Quileute wolves. Although he'd been shocked at first, now in the light of day in their sunny kitchen, he was considering visiting them.

Apparently Edward hadn't mentioned what side of the war they were on, or even if they were concerned with it at all. Now that they were protecting two of the Cullens, any allies they could get would only make things easier. Hopefully they would be neutral, and then it would be easier to sway their decision, if only they could get over this… dislike between the two creatures.

It might even give them a chance to make some friends in this place, as they weren't exactly mingling with the muggles…

He was wrenched out of his thoughts with a violent poke to his side. "Siri! I've been calling your name for the last five minutes!"

"Oops?" Sirius grinned. "Sorry Harry, I was just thinking about our wolfy neighbours."

Harry's widened his eyes dramatically. "Uh oh! You and thinking is never a good combination!" He pulled his bowl of cereal towards him and took a mouthful.

Sirius swatted his godson good-naturedly. "Shush you. I was _thinking_ that they might be able to help us with Esme and Edward."

"I thought we didn't know which side they were on?" Harry asked.

"And _that's_ why I'm going to go and talk to them!"

Harry was reasonably certain that they could protect Edward and Esme by themselves, but he supposed that it wouldn't hurt to have some extra help. Looking at the clock, he sighed. "Your day sounds like it'll be much more interesting than mine. Muggle school sucks."

"It'll be over before you know it" Sirius chuckled, although counting his blessings that he'd never had to go to a muggle school: the lessons sounded more boring than even History of Magic!

Harry scooped the remaining cornflakes into his mouth, before chucking the bowl into the sink and grabbing his bag. "I've got to go now, otherwise I'll be late. Good luck with the wolves!" He waved at his godfather, and then headed for the front door.

Once the door closed behind his godson, Sirius folded up the newspaper he was holding and changed into Padfoot. Excited to be back in his animagus form, he gave a few happy barks. Then, he made his way out of the front door and started running in the direction of the reservation.

He slowed down as he entered the reservation boundary, and raised his snout in the air, to try and find a wolf scent. Having no luck, he headed to the beach, hoping that he might run into one of the shape shifters down there.

At first glance the beach appeared deserted, so Sirius decided to take advantage of the mild weather by paddling at the edge of the sea. Catching a distinctly wolfish smell in the air, he turned around. Sure enough, the same large russet wolf was behind him. They stood nose to nose for several minutes, until the wolf winked and Sirius gathered his courage. Taking a deep breath, he took a few steps backwards before turning back into his human form.

He chuckled as the wolf gave a yelp of surprise, but then frowned in confusion as it bounded off to the trees. If this was one of the shape shifters, why was it running away?

When it didn't immediately return he was stumped. Just as he was considering leaving, he spotted a large, well-muscled teen coming out from the same direction the wolf had disappeared in. He watched as the boy made his way over to him wearing only a small pair of denim cut-offs. The boy gave him a wide smile, and explained, "Sorry, my clothes don't pop in and out of existence like yours seem to!"

Sirius blinked. He hadn't been expecting it, but as they didn't seem magical he supposed it made sense. Without preamble, he addressed the teen, "So you're one of the Quileutes wolves?"

The young man nodded and held out his hand, before introducing himself. "I'm Jake."

Sirius took the proffered hand. "Paddy." Seeing how relaxed the boy looked, he eyed him in confusion. "You're not worried that I know?"

Jake laughed. "Seeing as you were a dog a couple of minutes, I think I can be pretty certain that you're not an ordinary human either."

Gasping in mock horror, Sirius shrieked, "Ordinary!? _Moi_!?"

Jake clapped him on the back, chuckling. This man would definitely get on with the rest of the boys. "I take it there's a specific reason for your visit?"

Grin fading, Sirius cleared his throat. "It's a slightly delicate matter."

"Should I take you to my dad? He's one of the council elders."

Relieved that he wouldn't have to go on a search for the pack's leader, Sirius threw himself into a dramatic bow and exclaimed, "Lead the way!"

* * *

As soon as the lunch bell went, Harry made his way to the cafeteria. Once he'd collected his food, he looked around to see if Edward was already there. Certain that he wasn't, Harry made his way over to a small empty table in the corner and waited. He looked up and smiled brightly at Edward as he sat down in the seat in front of him. He took a sip of his drink, and asked, "Good day so far?"

"Yes, Trig was especially exciting this morning." the vampire answered, his golden eyes twinkling. "Yours?"

Harry sighed. "Let's just put it this way; I definitely need more tutoring."

Edward fiddled with the apple in his hand. "I have to go straight home tonight." he said, and then mouthed '_the Carrows_' by way of explanation. "How about tomorrow afternoon?"

Hastily swallowing his mouthful of sandwich, Harry answered, "Why don't you come to mine? You could even stay for dinner if you want." Suddenly realising what he said, he blushed furiously. "Well, obviously not-"

Chuckling, Edward interrupted him saying, "Don't worry, I knew what you meant." Ignoring the warm feeling that James' flushed cheeks gave him, he hastily answered the original question. "I'd love to come over. Send me your address tonight?"

Harry nodded, and took another bite of his sandwich.

Edward waited until James had finished his food, and then asked, "Is there anything I should know about Paddy or your house before I come?" He'd never been in a wizard's house before, so he wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

"Erm… there aren't any booby-traps or anything like that, so don't worry. Paddy can be over-protective sometimes though, so he might be uncomfortable about us being in my bedroom." Harry paused, blushing. Dragging his mind away from being alone in his room with the vampire, he continued, "There's also a chance that he might turn into a dog."

Edward burst out laughing at the last one, as it seemed completely random. Out of curiousity, he asked, "Can you turn into anything?"

"I've _tried_, but you have to know what your animagus form is before you can fully transform. I've seen it in my mind, but I have no clue what it is." It was incredibly frustrating for him. Once he had the knowledge of his animal, he was sure that with his strong determination it would only take him a matter of hours to be able to fully transform.

Intrigued, Edward asked, "Could you describe it? I've studied both muggle and magical mythology, so I could be of some help."

To ensure that he didn't make any mistakes, Harry quickly focused on his inner animal and pulled the image into his mind. "It looks like a large pale grey panther, but then it has these small purple ears and a large spiralled horn on the top of its head."

Edward started at the younger boy in amazement.

Seeing the vampire's awed expression, Harry asked excitedly, "Do you know what I am?"

"Their existence has never been proven, although people have been searching for them for centuries. However, the fact that it's your animagus form is clear proof!"

Harry reigned in his impatient sigh. "What _is_ it, Edward?"

Still in awe, Edward replied, "A Crumple-Horned Snorkack!"

Once the words processed in Harry's mind, he started at Edward in shock. He had dearly loved Luna, but had never believed in any of her bizarre animals. As ridiculous as they had sounded at the time, he felt guilty for not having more faith in her. He was almost certain that if she'd survived the final battle, she wouldn't have betrayed him like everyone else. Thinking about her now made his heart ache; she would have been over the moon to hear about his animagus form. The loss of their colourful friendship was still painful.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Harry asked, "What do you know about them? I think I heard that they can't fly?"

"That's right, although they're supposed to be able to run really fast, and they can survive in even the most extreme weather conditions. Their horns will always regrow themselves if damaged and their saliva is said to have powerful healing properties."

Harry sat back in his seat, impressed. He had never imagined that his animagus would be a rare magical creature. In fact, he hadn't believed it possible to be anything other than a non-magical animal. Before he'd seen the creature, he'd kind of assumed he might become Prongs like his father or even a snake thanks to his Parseltongue ability.

"James? Once you master the transformation, would you allow me to see?" Edward asked hesitantly. He didn't want to make his friend uncomfortable, but this was also a wonderful opportunity.

Seeing no reason to object, Harry offered, "How about tomorrow evening during our tutoring session? I'll work on it tonight, so with any luck I'll be able to fully transform."

Grinning excitedly, Edward was just about to question him further on transformation when the bell went for the end of lunch. Storing his questions away for later, he stood up reluctantly and headed off to biology with James.

* * *

Once they reached the right house, Jake opened the door and shouted for his dad. He grinned as he saw him wheeling into the hall grumbling about noisy teenagers.

Billy stopped as he saw the pale-face, and looked at his son questioningly. When Jacob didn't immediately explain, the other man stepped forward and offered his hand to him. "I'm Paddy Black." The hand that gripped his own was firm and calloused. "Billy Black. What is it that I can help you with?" he asked, gesturing for Jacob and Paddy to follow him into the kitchen and sit at the table.

Sirius gripped his wand in his pocket and murmured a silencing charm just in case there were any eavesdroppers. "I recently moved to Forks with my godson from England." Taking a deep breath, he decided that just coming straight out with it would be the best option: he could always use an obliviate if need be. "We're both wizards, and we came here to avoid the aftermath of the war."

"So _that's_ why you can turn into a dog!" Jake mumbled.

Ignoring his son, Billy rubbed his chin. "I haven't had contact with a wizard in over fifteen years." he murmured thoughtfully. It seemed odd that one had _now_ just randomly turned up on his doorstep. Then he asked the question which was bugging him the most. "May I ask how you knew of us?"

"The Cullens."

"The _bloodsuckers_?" Jake questioned, wrinkling his nose. "What the hell were you talking to them for?"

Sirius smirked at how much Jake reminded him of his teenage self. "Considering the 'children' go to school with my godson, and I'm employed by Esme Cullen, it would be quite difficult to _not_ talk to them."

Billy considered the man in front of him warily. He wasn't entirely sure if he found this Paddy character trustworthy or not. "I see. So what exactly is the purpose of your visit?"

"First, I need to ask you a question, if that's alright?" Seeing Billy's nod of acquiescence, Sirius continued, "I was told by Edward Cullen that you are neutral in the wizarding war. Is that true?"

Billy caught the hopeful tone in the man's voice, and wrinkled his brow in thought. Giving his son a warning look, Billy turned his eyes to his visitor and studied his face carefully. He was wary of telling this relative stranger of their alignment, in case it could be used against them. However, he usually had a sixth sense about people, and he wasn't getting any bad feelings about him. Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt, he answered, "Yes it is true, although I must say that we swing slightly towards the lighter side."

Sirius let out an audible sigh of relief. "Back in England we were firmly on the side of the light." Then he added as an afterthought, "Although I suppose now that we're staying here, we're slightly more neutral."

Seeing the truth in the younger man's eyes, Billy relaxed.

"You're aware of the Cullens' alignment?" The twin glowers on the other Black's faces gave Sirius his answer. "Right, well two of the Cullens, namely Esme and Edward, have come to us for protection. They wish to change sides, as they disagree with what the rest of their family are doing." When no one made any move to speak, he continued, "I know some of your history with them, including the treaty, but I was wondering if you would be willing to offer the four of us the protection of the tribe if it was needed. We would of course return the favour at any time."

Sirius desperately wanted to squirm under the calculating eye of Billy Black. However, he dredged up his Gryffindor courage and looked the elder man in the eye, hoping to appear calm and collected.

Billy kept a calm gaze on the wizard in front of him, a stark contrast to his racing thoughts. Something was telling him that Paddy was telling the complete truth, and he felt strangely compelled to help them. Furthermore, despite the treaty with the Cullens, Billy still had a problem with what they were doing, and this could be a chance to decrease, or even remove the threat they presented. The tribe had never made this sort of deal before, but he had to admit that it would be reassuring to know they had some extra protection.

Mind made up, Billy held his hand out slowly, and stated, "I accept."

* * *

Harry blushed furiously as he realised that they were studying human reproduction in biology. He'd never got that far in his last muggle school and obviously the Dursleys had never given him the birds and the bees talk. Even Hogwarts had generally avoided the subject like the plague, probably assuming that the students were well aware of the facts. Add to that the fact that the furthest he'd ever been was a wet kiss with Cho, the lesson was sure to be a disaster.

For the first fifteen minutes they were asked to label diagrams of the reproductive parts of a male and a female using correct scientific vocabulary. Picking up the female one, Harry turned to Edward in shock. "Bloody hell, this looks terrifying! I can't believe the girls are carrying _that_ around underneath their skirts…"

Edward gave him an odd look, but suddenly understood. "You've never studied this, have you?" Seeing James' cheeks redden, he took that as a yes. "Most of it is on the inside, so you can only really see _this_ bit and _those_ bits from the outside." he explained, pointing to the relevant parts.

Waggling his eyebrows, Harry asked, "Is that from personal experience?" For some reason he felt oddly relieved when Edward laughed and shook his head.

"No, I've just sat through many lessons like this, as well as several medicine degrees." The vampire pulled both of the diagrams towards him and started adding the appropriate labels.

Impressed by the speed with which Edward was labelling the male diagram, Harry turned his eyes to the female one again, and wrinkled his nose. "It still looks weird. I'll definitely stick to guys thank you very much." Realising what he'd revealed to the vampire, he paled. He looked at his lap, dreading Edward's reaction.

When he'd brought up homosexuality with Ron, he'd been subjected to a lecture about how unnatural and disgusting it was for a boy to like another boy. Suffice it to say, he hadn't come out to him after that. His uncle had always been incredibly derogatory about 'shirt lifters', as he called them, and after Ron's reaction, he'd assumed that being gay wasn't accepted in either the muggle or the magical world. Confused and disgusted by his 'freakish' feelings, he'd eventually broken down in front of Sirius and spilled his shameful secret. To his surprise, his godfather had held him tightly, telling him that what he felt was completely natural and nothing to be ashamed of. Now he realised that his sexuality was mostly accepted in the wizarding world, but he had no idea how the majority of muggles viewed it.

Understanding that James was worried about his reaction, Edward gently put his hand on his shoulder. "I'm not going to judge you James: I'd be a hypocrite if I did." He could tell when the meaning sunk in, as James looked up with a smile tugging at his lips.

Despite his relief at Edward's reaction, Harry was well aware of the redness of his face and the frantic pace of his heart. He offered the vampire a smile, before asking him to explain the female reproductive anatomy, effectively ending the previous conversation.

* * *

As requested by the Carrows, the Cullens were sitting around their large dining table waiting, just before 6pm.

After only a few minutes, the floo flared and spat out Amycus onto the carpet. His pig face screwed up as he glared at the grate, as if it had personally offended him. He quickly jumped out the way as a short stocky woman with sloping shoulders burst out.

"This is my sister, Alecto."

Carlisle nodded in greeting, and Alecto sneered back at him.

"You all know why we're here." Amycus said, moving to stand behind the Cullen patriarch. "Surprisingly, your little attack made it into our newspapers. You _actually_ managed to do quite well… for a bunch of creatures." The compliment had felt unnatural on his tongue, so he'd hurriedly added an insult on the end so that the vamps didn't get too full of themselves.

Alice put a gentle hand on Jasper's thigh and squeezed, to stop his faint growling. Nothing good would come of messing with the Carrows, even if they were _slightly_ on the thick side.

Meanwhile, Alecto moved to the opposite table to stand behind the bulkiest vampire. Thinking their guest could do with cheering up, Emmett gave her a wide grin and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything he was interrupted. "Listen up cheeky," the witch hissed in his ear. "On my person is a magical knife which attacks the nearest vampire and chops them to bits. Don't try my patience."

Emmett gulped and forced himself to concentrate on the main conversation.

"Now that you have proven that you can do things without _completely_ messing them up, we will have more tasks for all of you."

Carlisle decided to intervene at this point. "If I may, Mister Carrow, my wife Esme and my son Edward are not quite as bloodthirsty as the rest of us. They are instead trying to convert the views of a couple of wizards who have recently moved to the town."

Grunting in displeasure, Amycus glared down at the vampire. "Didn't you think it would be a good idea to let us know that earlier on?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't realise that you would be interested in such a small matter, but I shall keep you updated if you wish?"

"You'd better make sure of it." Amycus ran his small, watery eyes over the table, looking at each vampire in turn. "Your wife and son can continue to do as they are, but I expect results, and I hope for your sake that they're worthy allies. Empath, you will be required to help us conquer large group of people using your emotional control. Seer, you are to concentrate on our plans, and let us know at once if something will go wrong." Pleased with the lack of argument, he turned his attention to the patriarch.

Carlisle watched as the squat man turned to him. "Carlisle." Amycus spat the name out as if it offended him. "You will help persuade other creatures to our cause. Start with the mutts down the road, and then to the trolls and centaurs in the National Park."

"What should we do with these two?" cackled Alecto, pointing at Rosalie and Emmett.

Amycus spurred his brain into action, and all his could think about was that they needed more allies. As much as vampires disgusted him, maybe having a few more of them at their service wouldn't be _too_ bad.

His beady eyes lit up. "You will change more humans into vampires." Thinking quickly, he added, "Children will be more… malleable, so I don't want any over the age of fourteen."

Had Carlisle still be human, all his blood would have drained from his face. If the Volturi were to find out that they changed any children who were too young to control themselves, his family would be instantly sentenced to death. Seeing the delight in Rosalie's eyes, he quickly made his thoughts know. "We can only change children who are old enough to control themselves and are capable of self-sufficiency. Rosalie, as much as you want a baby, I cannot allow you to do that. I ask that you only change children who are over ten years old."

Despite the delightful carnage that the tantrum of a vampire toddler would cause, Amycus had to grudgingly agree with Carlisle. It would be no good if the children were uncontrollable after all; they couldn't afford to lose any of their own side to a bunch of boisterous baby vamps.

Circling the table, Amycus declared, "You have all received your orders, and you know what you must do. We expect you to keep us updated of your progress, and if we hear that you are keeping things from us again, we will be very… _displeased_."

With that, he gestured for his sister to follow, and they threw powder into the floo before disappearing into the emerald green flames one after the other.

* * *

Harry practically ran down the road with excitement. He couldn't wait to attempt to transform for the first time. As he bounded into the house, he called, _**"**__SIRI!_I know what my animagus form is!"

Sirius shouted from his armchair in the sitting room, "That's great pup! What is it?"

Following the sound of his godfather's voice, Harry slumped onto the sofa. Just as he was about to tell him, he remembered Sirius; attitude towards Luna. "Don't laugh." he warned.

Sirius looked affronted. "Of course not! An animagus form is a very serious thing."

"I'm a Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

Barely believing his ears, the older wizard burst into laughter, tightly holding onto his sides. "HAHAHAHA! Wouldn't that be _hilarious_!?"

Harry narrowed his eyes at his laughing godfather. "I'm glad you find it so amusing."

Realising that his godson was serious, he gulped. "Shit, I'm sorry Harry."

"It's alright. I was surprised at first too." he replied, deciding not to hold it against him. He was desperate to get to work as soon as possible, as he wanted to be able to show Edward the next evening. "I want to try and transform, will you help me?"

"Sure." Sirius wasn't entirely sure how big a Crumple-Horned Snorkack was, so he flicked his wand to push all of the furniture up against the walls, aside from two chairs. Settling himself into one of the chairs, he suggested, "If you want to stand in the middle, and then we can get started."

Harry did as he was told, and awaited further instructions.

"Pull the image of the animal into your mind." Sirius waited a few moments for Harry to do so, and then continued. "Imagine that you and the creature are one and the same. Imagine that your hands are its paws, that your face is its face."

Feeling an odd tingling in his left hand, or paw now, he supposed, he focussed harder on making himself one with his animagus.

"Now, concentrate on whichever part of your body is tingling, and will it to physically change form."

He willed with all his might, still imaging a grey paw in the place of his right hand. He tried to remember the will they'd used in Transfiguration lessons, but applied to himself. The tingling increased, and he hopefully peeked through one eye. He huffed in disappointment, as his hand was definitely still human.

"Don't worry pup, no one ever gets it straight away." Sirius reassured. "If it helps, get on your hands and feet like your animal would."

Pushing his feelings of foolishness aside, Harry lowered himself awkwardly onto his hands and feet. Squeezing his eyes shut again, he brought up the image of his animal and tried to make it part of himself.

"Don't open your eyes this time. I will tell you if anything changes, but you need to keep concentrating."

After half an hour, the only change was that Harry's skin had gone an odd shade of grey. He sighed in frustration.

"Come on Harry, cheer up. We haven't been trying for that long, and you've already managed some sort of change." Sirius encouraged. "You're doing a lot better than me kiddo: it took me a good week to even change my skin colour."

Slightly cheered by that thought, the younger wizard threw himself back into his training.

The next time he opened his eyes, he had a set of four fur covered paws in the place of his hands and feet. However, no matter how much he willed the change further along his body, nothing was happening. Fed up of the lack of progress, he pushed away his connection with his animagus form and returned to his fully human state. "Urg! Why isn't it working?" It wasn't as if he didn't have enough determination, so what the hell was going wrong?

"Let's do something else for a few minutes Harry. Just relax and think about something else." Sirius suggested, realising that his godson wasn't going to get anywhere in his current agitated state.

Accepting the sense in his godfather's words, Harry walked over to the spare chair and sat down it in heavily. He was more tired than he'd thought. Struggling for something to talk about, Harry burst out, "We had a sex lesson in biology today."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"I felt kind of stupid." He admitted quietly. "I didn't really know much."

Getting out of his chair and heading towards the bookshelf, he said mischievously, "Well, you're in luck pup. It so happens that I'm well equipped for this _very_ situation!"

Harry looked at his godfather warily, and wondered what was causing his impish smile. However, he was soon given an answer when 'Buggering For Boys' and the equally tasteful 'Every Gay Wizard's Encyclopaedia To The Horizontal (Or Vertical) Bop' landed in his lap. He stared at them in horror.

"I took the liberty of buying these for you after that chat we had last year. I didn't think you'd want me to go into detail with you, so I thought I'd get you some books instead." He failed to mention the fact that he'd bought the ones with the most horrendous titles just to embarrass his godson. "In fact, 'Buggering For Boys' has quite a few _interesting_ pictures in it, if I remember correctly." He delighted in seeing Harry's blush spread even further across his face.

Satisfied that he'd successfully mortified his godson, he decided to swiftly move on. "Right, shall we get back to your animagus training?"


End file.
